Ai. 






■ 




H 

1 1 ■ 



■ 
■ 



&C 



■ I 



^^H 



H 












* LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. J 



#te |>g g n S t ; f^ t U/84ff 

^^# ws. 



I UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.! 






■ 
■ 



■ 



f /.:**! 






■ 









l&y 



^H 



■ 

^1 



I 









■ 



,«*, 









&> 






u^ 















***■* 



■ 






lAr.- 




I 









.j&#j 



■ H 51 



Correspondences 



of 



The Bible 



THE ANIMALS. 



BY 

JOHN WORCESTER. 



BOSTON; 
LOCKWOOD, BROOKS, AND CO. 

1875- 



i.1.2. 






Copyright, 
By John Worcester, 

^75- 



Cambridge : 
Press of John Wilson and Son. 



CONTENTS. 

♦ 

PAGE 

General Doctrine of Correspondences ... i 

The Animals used in Sacrifices. 

Sheep 5 

Goats 15 

Oxen 20 

The Unicorn 30 

Animals used for Transportation 32 

The Ass 36 

The Horse 39 

The Mule 47 

The Camel 50 

Various Animals. 

Antelopes and Deer 57 

The Lion 76 

The Bear 87 

The Wolf 99 

The Leopard 109 

The Dog 118 

The Fox and the Jackal 129 

Swine 137 

The Wild Boar 141 

Mice 146 

Frogs 148 

Apes 150 



iv CONTENTS. 



Serpents 152 

Birds 164 

Eagles 170 

Doves 189 

Song-Birds 196 

Birds of Beautiful Plumage 202 

The Bird of Paradise 205 

The Peacock 211 

The Ostrich 213 

Various Birds. 

The Stork 217 

The Cock and Hen 220 

Partridges and Quails 222 

The Owl 225 

The Raven 233 

Fishes 238 

Insects, including Butterflies and Moths . . 247 

The Locust 257 

Bees 264 

Hornets 268 

Flies 269 

Spiders . 270 

Scorpions 274 



CORRESPONDENCES. 



'TPHE natural objects of the world about us are 
images, or manifestations to bodily sense, of 
the spiritual things in human minds. If it were 
not so, we should have no distinct ideas of spiritual 
things, and no means of describing them, or of 
learning about them. When we speak of affections, 
we call them warm, pure, fresh, sweet, strong, or 
the opposites : which expressions are the names of 
natural qualities ; but we perceive them to be, in a 
spiritual sense, the appropriate names of corre- 
sponding spiritual qualities. So of thoughts, we 
say that they are lofty, comprehensive, luminous, or 
the reverse ; of the rational mind, that it sees, per- 
ceives, listens, — that it is clear-sighted, active, sen- 
sitive ; and, indeed, there is hardly a word used to 
describe mental objects or phenomena which is not 
primarily descriptive of natural objects and phe- 



2 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

nomena. As applied to spiritual things, these words 
are used figuratively, and contain little parables by 
which spiritual qualities are brought out to our 
apprehension, and illustrated. 

As men who are made for a never-ending life in 
a spiritual world, we might see at a glance that this 
must be so ; for this natural life is designed as a 
preparation for the spiritual life. If natural things 
bore no relation to spiritual, a life spent among 
them would have no relation to the eternal spiritual 
life. That they may perfectly serve their purpose 
of introduction to spiritual things, all natural objects 
must be natural forms and representatives of spirit- 
ual. To deny this, or to believe it to be only partly 
or imperfectly true, is to believe that this world is 
not at all, or only imperfectly, adapted to prepare 
men for the spiritual world. 

If, indeed, it is, as it must be, perfectly adapted 
to this purpose, we shall co-operate with Him who 
designed it, by obtaining definite knowledge of nat- 
ural things, and giving careful attention to their 
spiritual correlatives; for thus the spiritual mind 



CORRESPONDENCES. 



will be opened and trained to distinct, clear, spirit- 
ual perceptions. 

This is the province of the study of correspond- 
ences. The study is boundless as science itself. 
Every branch of science, with all the particulars of 
it, is a physical emblem of deeper things than itself ; 
and, if interiorly opened, it presents to our view a 
corresponding branch of spiritual science, with its 
particulars. This is beyond our present purpose, 
which is principally to unfold the symbols of the 
Holy Scriptures ; but in finding the spiritual sense 
of these we shall obtain the clew to many other 
correspondences. 

Common speech testifies to a general recognition 
of relationship between animals and human feelings. 
The names of gentle, innocent animals are be- 
stowed as terms of endearment upon persons to 
whom they are appropriate; and the names of 
unclean or ferocious animals are used to describe 
the corresponding feelings and actions of men. 

And these terms are employed with somewhat 
careful discrimination of their meanings. " Dove " 



4 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

and " Chick," as applied to children, present ideas 
of quite different kinds of innocence ; nor should 
we be in any danger of confounding the meaning 
of " Puppy " and " Tiger " as applied to men. 

The characteristics of animals are more simple 
and more easily recognized than those of men ; 
for individual men include the qualities of many 
animals. Men also can choose among their animal 
qualities what they will cherish, and what repress, 
and they are responsible for their choice ; but 
animals cannot essentially change their natures, 
though the manifestations of them may be consid- 
erably modified by training or circumstances. 

Careful observation easily detects the affection 
which is the life of an animal, even under the veil 
of hypocrisy which some animals know how to 
assume ; the rest of our study consists in detecting 
the similar affection in human beings, and of this 
the animal is the embodiment or correspondence. 
In this manner we will study, first, the correspond- 
ence of Sheep and Lambs ; and then that of other 
animals used in sacrifices. 



SHEEP. 



SHEEP. 

TT)ERHAPS the most striking characteristic of 
sheep is that which the Lord describes in 
John. Speaking of the shepherd, He says, — 

"The sheep hear his voice, and 'he calleth his 
own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And 
when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth 
before them, and the sheep follow him ; for they 
know his voice : and a stranger will they not follow, 
but will flee from him : for they know not the voice 
of strangers." 

The Lord spoke of Himself and His Church, in 
language and imagery that were familiar to His 
disciples. The shepherds of the East give a name 
to each member of their flocks, which the sheep 
soon learn, and to which they instantly respond. 

In the dry season many shepherds with their 
flocks meet at regular times around the wells. 
The flocks mingle at the troughs, drinking. But 



6 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

when all are satisfied, the shepherds move off 
in different directions, calling their sheep, which 
immediately follow, every one its own shepherd, 
with scarcely the possibility of a mistake. In 
regard to their drinking, it is worthy of notice that 
sheep need very little water. When the herbage 
is juicy, and especially when the morning dew is 
abundant, sheep want no other water for weeks 
together. But when fed upon hay, or in the hot 
season in Eastern countries, when the herbage is 
dry, they need frequent watering. 

It is not uncommon in our country for single 
lambs to receive names and be petted, when they 
become models of trustful obedience toward their 
master, but remain timid towards a stranger. 

Our sheep, however, rarely have a shepherd's 
care, being confined by walls and fences. Instead 
of a shepherd, they attach themselves to one of 
their own number, who acts as their leader, and 
whom they follow as trustfully as they would their 
master. With neither shepherd nor leader, they 
are distracted, and scatter in every direction. 



SHEEP. 



It is a peculiarity of sheep that while they are 
so easily led by one whom they know, they are 
driven with difficulty. They huddle together as 
if frightened, and the more they are pressed, the 
more frightened they seem ; but if the leaders 
start forward, the flock follows. 

Another noteworthy trait is their memory of 
kindness. They never forget a little present of 
salt or grain, or a kind act of protection from 
danger ; every benefit they repay with affection,; 
confidently expecting renewals of it. Sheep are 
remarkable also for their mutual affection. They 
love to feed with their heads close together, two 
or three of them frequently keeping their heads so 
close as to seem like parts of one animal. The 
sudden start of a single member of a flock affects 
the whole, as if they were connected by nerves 
of mutual affection. When accidentally separated 
from its companions, the cries of a sheep or lamb, 
as it runs anxiously about, are piteous. 

Affection for their shepherd is stronger than 
their mutual love. Him they will follow away 



8 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

from their friends, and, I believe, even from their 
young. Their affection for their young, also, is 
stronger than their love for one another. The 
sounds of affection which a mother-sheep makes 
over her little lamb are of the tenderest kind, A 
human mother can hardly express more tender 
feeling. 

Another characteristic of sheep is patience. 
When a sheep is caught by the shearer, at first 
there is a short struggle, till she finds that she is 
firmly held and cannot get away. Then she gives 
up entirely. Even if she be hurt, she shows neither 
resentment nor resistance ; she is, in the hands of 
the shearer, perfectly resigned and patient. 

Upon the wool of sheep we depend for warm 
clothing more than upon all other materials 
together. Fine, soft, long, with a useful faculty 
for matting or felting into a compact texture, it 
grows thick and heavy, and is retained by the 
sheep till it is a great burden to herself, evidently 
for the use of man. 

All that she is, the sheep gives in our service, — 



SHEEP. 9 

her wool, her milk, her skin, her flesh, and even 
her bones and entrails ; not a particle is useless. 
As is the case also with goats and cows, it is not 
what she does that we value, but what she is. And 
she is continually busy in making herself valuable, 
and multiplying herself or increasing her own 
growth for the benefit of others. 

Lambs have always been regarded as emblems 
of Innocence ; and, indeed, their active, pretty 
sports and gambols are nothing but sports of 
innocence. But the innocence of which they are 
forms is not the dead harmlessness of a log, nor 
the slow helplessness of a snail ; it is helpless and 
dependent indeed, but it has great need and strong 
desire for help ; and its necessity and dependence 
are equalled by its trustful love for him who sup- 
plies its wants. 

An innocence closely resembling that of lambs 

we find in little children. Active dependence and 

loving trust are as evident in them as in lambs. 

Even a lamb-like fright at the call of a stranger 

is conspicuous in children when they first learn 
1* 



io CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE, 

to distinguish their parents from other persons ; 
and also a helpless terror when driven by harsh 
parents or nurses. And, again, their resignation 
and patience in time of . sickness, or in the care 
of parents who are firm as well as kind, are as 
marked as the same qualities in sheep and lambs. 
Among mature men and women in active life 
we do not see much of child-like innocence. 
But when, through misfortune, sickness, and the 
discouragement of the natural desires and efforts, 
they becgme sensible of their helplessness and 
dependence, if they are wise they turn from self 
to the Lord, and then receive a perception of 
His loving care which produces in them grateful 
content with trust in His Providence, and a 
willingness to be led wholly by Him. 

These characteristics exist naturally and exter- 
nally in children, but internally and spiritually in 
men who thus love the Lord. The Lord says that 
all must become like little children before they 
can enter the kingdom of Heaven ; and those who 
are preparing for Heaven He calls His sheep and 



SHEEP. 



II 



His lambs. To them He is parents and shepherd. 
He is parents, because they who are in this state 
have laid aside in some degree their own life, and 
manifestly are living from a new life that He gives. 
He is shepherd, because they perceive His guidance 
in the walks of every day, and find, in following 
Him, wisdom and uses and delights which give 
satisfaction and expansion to their souls. 

These affections love the Lord more than all 
things else ; they leave all that belongs to them 
and seems pleasant to them, if they hear Him call ; 
they trust in Him through every trial, content to 
feel His care protecting them, fearful only when 
He is absent ; they are frankly innocent, because 
their whole heart is open to the Lord, and cannot 
help rejoicing in His Presence. They are not 
cumbered about much serving ; for what need is 
there, when they see all wants supplied by the 
Lord ? Their own love for Him, which is to them 
the highest good, they will increase and multiply 
and communicate to others in every way they can. 

Love of every kind, from the delight there is in 



12 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



it, has a desire to multiply itself and a perception 
of the means of increase. It has also affection for 
cherishing the truth which it perceives, until it 
brings forth new states of love and delight, which 
it rejoices over and perfects with truth of its own 
life. 

These affections are male and female. The 
affection for multiplying the love, with perception 
of the truth by which it may be multiplied, is male ; 
and the affection for cherishing this truth and the 
new delights which it produces, is female. 1 

In the Scriptures, where animals of various kinds 
are often mentioned, always with exact knowledge 
of their correspondence, these interior qualities are 
carefully distinguished : Lambs are always used 
as representatives of innocent delight in loving the 
Lord ; Rams are mentioned as forms of perception 
of truth from love to the Lord, by which that love 



1 Lambs, celestial innocence. Sheep, mutual love. Rams, 
truth of celestial love. A. C. 3994. References by letters are to 
Swedenborg's works, the titles of which are familiar to all New 
Churchmen. 



SHEEP. 



!3 



may be multiplied ; and ewes as representatives of 
that gentlest mutual love by which the beginnings 
of love to the Lord are cherished and sustained. 

The wool of sheep, which is the clothing in which 
we see them, is the outward expression of love 
to the Lord and mutual love, consisting of trustful 
and charitable thoughts, and of continuous, kindly, 
reverent manners. In a cold, selfish atmosphere, 
if we think selfish things, or merely intellectual 
truth, the cold will penetrate, and discourage and 
dissipate neighborly affection ; but if we persist 
in thinking, speaking, and acting in the forms of 
innocence and charity, our life, thus clothed and 
protected, may be preserved unharmed. 

In the Jewish Church the burnt offerings and 
sacrifices were most frequently of lambs. There 
was no true knowledge of the Lord with them, and 
consequently no true worship of Him. But their 
offerings and sacrifices were representatives of true 
worship. They never felt the Lord's Love, but the 
fire on their altar was a representative of it. They 
had no innocent delight in loving the Lord and 



14 



CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



receiving His Love ; but they had lambs which 
represented this delight ; and the offering of lambs 
upon the fire of the altar represented the union of 
the Lord's Love with innocent love for Him, in 
man. 

It was this meaning, and this was all, that the 
Lord and the angels loved in the Jewish offerings. 

Because there was not in the world, at the close 
of the Jewish Church, any of the celestial love that 
is represented by lambs, lest all knowledge of the 
Divine Love should cease, and the possibility of 
heavenly life from it should perish for ever, it 
was necessary for the Lord to form for Himself a 
Divine Humanity by which His Love should be 
received with perfect innocence, and manifested 
to men. The inmost principle of that Humanity 
was Divine Human Love for the Love of God ; 
and when that Human Love prevailed through the 
whole of His Human nature, it was glorified by 
union with the Divine Love ; and in Him the 
meaning of the burnt-offering of a lamb upon the 
fire of the altar was perfectly fulfilled. 



GO A TS. 



J S 



GOATS. 

/^ OATS are in many respects similar to sheep. 
They are of about the same size, perhaps a 
little larger ; and, like sheep, they have horns and 
divided hoofs ; they ruminate, they are generally 
inoffensive and playful ; and they give milk, wool, 
and their flesh and their skins to the uses of man. 

They differ from sheep in being capricious, often 
mischievous, curious, and meddlesome ; they are 
loud and peremptory in their cries ; their wool is 
short, and concealed by long hairs ; they love more 
rocky and precipitous feeding-grounds, and browse 
freely upon the bark and twigs of trees. 

Little kids have so much of the nature of lambs 
that they were accepted as sacrifices in their stead ; 
but they are less gentle and affectionate, more 
impatient and peremptory in calling, and are full 
of curiosity, approaching, smelling, and nibbling 
every new object that falls in their way. 



1 6 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

. There is a similar difference in the disposition 
of infants. 

One can hardly read Swedenborg's description 
of infants without being reminded of the innocence 
of kids and of lambs respectively. He says : — 

" Infants differ in their genius ; some being of 
the genius by which the spiritual angels are distin- 
guished, and some of the genius by which the celes- 
tial angels are distinguished. The infants who are 
of the celestial genius appear on the right in heaven, 
and those who are of the spiritual genius on the left. 
. . . The distinction between them is very obvious. 
Those who are of the celestial genius think, speak, 
and act with more softness than those of the spir- 
itual genius, so that scarcely any thing appears but 
something of a flowing character derived from the 
love of good directed to the Lord, and towards 
other little children. 

" Those of the spiritual genius, on the other 
hand, do not think, speak, and act with such soft- 
ness ; but something of a fluttering and vibratory 
character, so to speak, manifests itself in every 
thing that they say and do. It also is apparent 
from the indignation which they exhibit ; and by 
other signs." x 

1 H - H - 333* 339- 



GO A TS. 



x 7 



The difference between the celestial and the 
spiritual genius that Swedenborg speaks of is as 
the difference between love and wisdom. Those 
who are in celestial innocence love the Lord for 
His Love ; those who are in spiritual innocence 
love the Lord for His Wisdom. This difference 
is quite plainly manifested by the difference in 
the clothing of sheep and goats. Love for the 
goodness of the Lord, with the mutual love 
springing from it, manifests itself in manners, 
looks, and acts which can hardly be separated 
from one another and examined singly, but are 
almost continuous. But love for the wisdom of 
the Lord, with the charity which arises from it, 
is a love for distinct truths, and presents itself 
in manners and acts each of which presents a 
distinct thought. Goodness is one and continuous ; 
truth is manifold and separable. 

That kids represent spiritual innocence is plain 
from their inquiring restlessness, compared with 
the quiet content of lambs. This innocence is 
received naturally by infants of the kind just 



1 8 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

described ; it is received interiorly and spiritually 
by those who love wisdom, when, having learned 
that their own intelligence is delusive and foolish, 
they are led and taught by the Lord alone. 

The love of wisdom, even the love of being taught 
by the Lord, is sadly liable to perversion. If it 
retains its innocence, it holds the truth reverently, 
and serves it humbly, delighting to introduce 
others to the ennobling service. It may, however, 
too easily make truth the servant and self the 
master, using truth to glorify self, and introducing 
others^ not to the service of truth, but to the 
service of self as the possessor of truth. 

The love of truth for truth's sake, and the 
affection for leading to truth, is represented by he- 
goats in a good sense ; and the love of cherishing 
the affection for truth and showing the goodness 
of it in life, is represented by she-goats. 1 But 
the love of exalting self by means of the truth, and 

1 Kids, spiritual innocence. She-goats, charity or the good of 
truth. He-goats, the love of truth for truth's sake or for the sake 
of self. 4169, 3519, 3995, A. C. 



GOATS. i 9 



of taking to self the honor and regard that belong 
to the truth, is figured in the wantonness and 
mischievousness of goats. 

The goats on the left hand had learned truth 
from the Lord, but they had not lived it. They 
had gloried in it, and demanded honor and service 
on account of it ; and the very truth they had 
condemned them. 1 

Upon the head of a goat were laid all the sins 
of the congregation of Israel, and he bore them 
away into the wilderness, a representative of the 
people taught by the mouth of the Lord, yet 
despising others, and finally rejecting the Lord 
Himself because He would not use His Divine 
power to exalt them above all other nations upon 
the earth. 



1 817, A. E. 



20 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE, 



OXEN. 

A LEADING characteristic of the Ox family is 

that they are submissive to authority, and 

easily driven. They do not follow their master's 

call like sheep and goats ; but to the word of 

command and to the goad they are obedient. 

This submission to authority they show among 
themselves. Among a herd of cows feeding, the 
strongest goes where she chooses, and the others 
stand aside. If a new cow comes to them, the 
others gather round, not to hurt her, but to try 
their strength with her. If she can push the 
strongest, she is obeyed by them all. If not, she 
tries her strength with them, one by one, finds 
her place, makes way for the stronger, and drives 
out of her path the weaker. 

There is, however, no malice in their contests ; 
which are purely trials of strength. The victors 
do not pursue the conquered. That they yield is 



OXEN. 21 



sufficient. The animals are usually mild and 
gentle, innocent in a rough way, and, when young, 
very playful ; " to skip like a calf," is an expres- 
sive scriptural phrase. 

They have strong affection for one another, 
feeding always near together, even when they 
have a wide range of pasture ; and, if several 
herds are in the same pasture, the cattle that live 
together and are acquainted stay together in the 
field. If a cow by chance is separated, she runs 
about, lowing, until she finds her friends. 

They are easily contented. With a moderate 
supply of food, and room for exercise, they eat till 
they are satisfied, and then lie down, models of 
tranquil enjoyment. 

Cows are remarkable among animals for attach- 
ment to their young. If the calf be carried away 
in sight of its mother, the cow will leave home, 

friends, and food, and follow as long as she can 
walk. 

The abundance of the milk which they pour out 

for their offspring is, perhaps, a consequence and 



22 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

% manifestation of this maternal affection. Their 
milk is of so great a quantity that it affords the 
main supply of that kind of food for man. 

Another important quality in cattle is their 
capacity for labor. Oxen are large and strong, and 
will move very heavy loads slowly. They are also 
patient of difficulties. A succession of obstacles, 
as in rough ploughing, which would exhaust the 
patience of a horse, and make him restive or 
unwilling to pull at all, have no such effect upon 
the ox ; he will pull again and again at the word of 
command, the hundredth time just as patiently as 
the first. 

We 1 find an external parallel to these qualities 
in childhood, during the time when the love of 
acquiring knowledge is the ruling principle, — that 
is, between the ages of seven and fourteen. At 
this period the feeling of dependence, which is a 
characteristic of infancy, is wearing away ; but 
obedience is strong, — obedience to command and 
to rules. 

1 2179, 21C0, 2566, A. C, and A. R. 242. 



OXEN. 23 



Children of this age are very much under control 
of the strongest will. A group of school children 
behave, when a new companion comes among them, 
just as the cattle do. They approach cautiously, 
the stronger ones more confidently, and, if they 
are rude, they soon engage him in trials of 
physical strength ; if of better character, they 
test his skill and zeal for their favorite pursuits. 
He soon finds his place, and is respected and 
treated accordingly. Though fond of rough play, 
such children are usually guiltless of intentional 
harm ; and their sympathy with those who are 
oppressed and in trouble is always ready. It is 
a rare child who is not willing to pour out his own 
stores generously to assist the weak, and to relieve 
those who are suffering. 

Their good-will also is patient and persevering. 
If it does not succeed in accomplishing its 
object in one way, it tries another and again 
another, working patiently as long as it has 
strength. 

The heavy loads of the mind are stores of facts 



24 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



and knowledge in the memory, which children 
carry easily, but only a little way, — not yet being 
able to bring remote things together. 

These good qualities of childhood generally 
disappear in youth, and are succeeded by faculties 
less kindly, less patient, but of greater intellectual 
activity. 

But as men advance in regeneration, knowing 
well their own difficulties in doing well, they may 
again become patient of the faults of others, patient 
too in overcoming their own natural habits of 
thought and misplaced facts, which, like stumps 
and stones, cumber tbe ground, and also in help- 
ing others to do the same, and to prepare their 
minds for better thoughts and uses. 

The sincere friendliness of those who are trying 
together to live a good life in obedience to known 
truth, is rightly represented by a kind and patient 
ox. The affection for learning all the ways of 
useful life and work — an affection which is 
innocent and glad — is represented by a calf ; and 
the love of encouraging such affections in others, 



OXEN. 



25 



by neighborly communication of the ways in which 
we enjoy living, is represented by a milch cow. 1 
The milk itself is the truth ; the butter is the 
kindliness ; the sugar the pleasantness ; and the 
curd is the love of work in it. A mother who is 
a willing worker, patient, helpful, and contented, 
desires to train her child to similar helpfulness ; 
she accordingly teaches the child what is useful 
and practicable, and with her teaching imparts also 
her kindliness., her love of work, and her pleasure 
in it. The child interested in learning the mothers 
ways is spiritually a calf, and grows by the milk of 
the mothers teaching. So, too, a person coming 
into a society engaged in useful work, or enter- 
ing upon a new occupation, desires to know how 
to help ; he needs friendly instruction, such as is 
represented by milk ; his desire for it is spiritually 
a calf, which learns eagerly, and gambols with de- 
light in his growing powers. 

When a society has little regard for spiritual life, 
and is engaged in doing, not what will minister 

1 A. C. 2184, and A. R. 242. 



26 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

to the lasting good of its members and the com- 
munity, but what is expressively called "having 
a good time," that is, in obtaining the greatest 
present pleasure, the desire to be initiated into 
its knowledge and enjoyments is also represented 
by a calf, but in a perverted sense. This was the 
desire of the Israelites, who, while Moses was 
receiving the Law for them from Jehovah, impa- 
tient at the slow fulfilment of the Divine promises, 
gathered riotously in heathen sports and feasts 
about a golden calf, which represented the affection 
which they chose to serve. 1 

It was said of the Lord representatively, by the 
prophet Isaiah, " Butter and honey shall he eat, 
that he may know to refuse the evil and choose 
the good ; " and by butter is meant the kindness 
and goodness which the Lord in His boyhood 
would perceive in the instructions of the Word, 
and by honey the natural pleasantness of learning 
from It. By this the Lord learned to distinguish 
good from evil. 

3 242, A. R. 



OXEN. 



27 



• Burnt-offerings of calves, bullocks, and heifers 
were frequent among the ceremonies of the Jewish 
Church ; and by them were represented the con- 
tinual perception and acknowledgment by spiritual 
men that the good things represented by these ani- 
mals are in the Lord, and from Him alone in man. 

The Lord received such things in Divine purity 
and fulness from His Divinity into His Humanity ; 
and by such reception His Humanity was perfected. 
In the history of Abraham we have, in the spiritual 
sense, an account of the growth and spiritual prog- 
ress of the Lord in His childhood and youth. And 
therefore it was that when the angels appeared to 
Abraham, by which was represented the Lord's 
interior perception of the Divinity within Him, 
Abraham presented to them butter and milk and 
the calf which he had dressed ; and in that pro- 
phetic act was foretold by the Lord the growth in 
His own Humanity of natural goodness and truth 
and the affection for them. 

In comparing the ox family with sheep and 
goats, it is worthy of notice that, as they feed 



28 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

naturally, the kine prefer the ranker grasses of the 
valleys and lower hill-sides, but the sheep and goats 
climb the mountains, preferring the sweeter though 
scantier grasses of their less accessible nooks and 
slopes. These correspond to truths concerning a 
state of spiritual elevation, or nearness to the Lord ; 
and the coarser food to truth of good natural life. 

All these animals naturally have horns and 
divided hoofs, and chew the cud ; and because of 
their divided hoofs and ruminating habit they were 
by the Levitical Law clean for food and fit for sac- 
rifices. Their horns represent the truth by which 
good loves defend themselves, and which they de- 
sire others to obey. They are truths of experience 
which grow from their own life, and which they are 
ready to maintain as fixed and certain. 

Hoofs are of similar material, formed to take hold 
of the ground and support the animal as it stands, 
walks, or runs. They represent the hold we have 
from our own experience upon facts and natural 
truth. If we desire to do good to another, we must 
be sure of our footing as we approach ; there must 



OXEN, 29 



be common facts and natural principles which we 
can stand upon ; if these fail, we are brought to 
a stand ; or if we have been hurt by them, or are 
morbidly sensitive to them, we advance lamely. 

A solid hoof, as of a horse or ass, desires only to 
know what is sound and right; this it strikes with a 
blow and bounds on. A divided hoof is itself more 
tender, it presses more lightly and carefully, and 
feels each step in two ways, considering not only 
whether its ground is true, but whether it is good 
also. This is characteristic of the steps of the 
good loves represented by sheep, goats, and kine. 

The rumination of these animals represents the 
meditation of such affections upon truth learned, 
for the sake of living it. Merely to eat and swallow 
is to understand and receive ; further rumination 
is from love for good life. 



3 o CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE, 



THE "UNICORN." 

r I ^HERE is one other animal mentioned in the 
Scriptures which should be noticed here ; 
and that is the " Unicorn. " The name " unicorn " is 
a translator's mistake. The Bible says that the 
animal has " horns," not one horn (Deut. xxxiii. 
17, Hebrew) ; and further, that it was fit for sacri- 
fice (Isa. xxxiv. 7), — consequently having divided 
hoofs and chewing the cud ; that it was an animal 
of great size and strength, but too wild to plough 
or harrow (Job xxxix. 9-12). In two places also it 
is used as a poetic parallel to a bullock or calf : 
" His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and 
his horns are like the horns of an unicorn " (Deut. 
xxxiii. 17) ; "He maketh them also to skip like a 
calf, Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn" 
(Ps. xxix. 6). 

These facts seem entirely to justify the unani- 
mous conclusion of modern Bible scholars that the 



"THE UNICORN." 3I 



animal belonged to the ox family, and probably to 
that branch of it which was formerly common in 
northern Europe under the name of Auerochs, or 
yore-ox (ancient ox), abbreviated by the Romans 
to Urus ; which is said still to exist in the Caucasus 
mountains ; whose form is sculptured upon the 
monuments of Nimroud as a wild animal of the 
chase ; whose bones, six and a half feet in height 
and twelve in length, with bony horn-cores more 
than three feet long, are found in Switzerland; 
and whose teeth Tristram asserts that he found 
in Palestine. 1 

If all this is to be trusted, as I think it is, we 
are prepared to see that the " Reem " represents 
the vehement power of a love for merely external 
good things, not subordinated to spiritual love, to 
urge and insist upon its principles, whether true 
or false. 2 

1 Tristram's Nat. Hist, of the Bible; Art. "Unicorn," Bible 
Diet. ; and Wood's Bible An. 

2 A. E. 316. S. S. 18. * 



ANIMALS FOR TRAVEL, 



r*HE general distinction as to uses between the 
class of animals used for food and sacrifices 
— sheep, goats, and cattle — and those which labor 
in carrying burdens, is that the former give their 
own substance, their milk and wool, their skins and 
flesh, for beneficent purposes ; but the latter give 
their power of action. 

There is a similar distinction between the men- 
tal faculties to which they correspond. If we 
share with one another our love for the Lord and 
for the neighbor, showing mutual sympathy and 
kindness, and communicating helpful knowledge 
of good ways of life, in the effort to communicate 
ourselves to others we exercise the affections 
represented by sheep, goats, and kine. But if 
there be a subject which we wish to understand, 
and we set our minds to work upon it, in the 



ANIMALS FOR TRA VEL. 



33 



delight of understanding we are exercising the 
intellectual faculties represented by the animals 
which serve for transportation. 

There are many varieties of mental activity in 
persons of different qualities and at different 
stages of life. Some are slow and plodding, and 
others quick and frisky ; some are minute, others 
broad and comprehensive ; some are uncertain, 
unexpectedly shying and starting, and requiring 
constant watching to make any progress, and 
others are strong, steady, and well sustained. 
Some, again, are set and obstinate, utterly unwill- 
ing and mentally unable to vary their gait, and 
almost equally averse to changing their direction ; 
while others are free and generous, yielding easily 
and gracefully to the varying emotions of the will 
and demands of the occasion. In these charac- 
teristics of the mental powers we cannot fail to 
see in a general view the likeness of our travelling 
animals ; and the likeness becomes more distinct 
as we examine more closely the working of our 
minds. Observe, for instance, the tendency of the 



34 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



mind to run in familiar channels, how disposed it 
is to think over and say over the things it has 
thought and said before ; and when we have 
started it in pursuit of some remote object, see 
how it takes advantage of every relaxation of the 
reins to turn back towards home, and go over the 
easy, familiar ways of thought. Notice how freely 
and confidently it steps where it is sure of its facts, 
and its own experiences are abundant to sustain 
it ; and again, how lamely it moves where its 
experience is deficient, or it is morbidly sensitive 
to the facts of the case. 

Literature and common speech show that this 
likeness is not unfamiliar. The ancient Greeks — 
who made the top of their highest mountain, Olym- 
pus, the home of the gods, established the abode of 
Heavenly wisdom upon the lower mountain, Heli- 
conaeum, and that of the wisdom of men upon 
Parnassus — described the flights of the under- 
standing, in its effort to attain spiritual truth, as a 
winged horse called Pegasus, who, as he swiftly 
ascended the slopes of Heliconaeum, burst open 



ANIMALS FOR TRAVEL, 



35 



with a stroke of his hoof the fountain of the Muses ; 
by which they understood the birth of the sciences 
from the influence of spiritual intelligence upon 
natural knowledge. 1 We moderns preserve the 
figure of the winged horse as descriptive of a poet's 
power of seeing the real life of events through 
their outward forms. More familiarly yet, we speak 
of a man of magnificent ideas as riding a high- 
stepping horse ; and, with too much impatience, we 
call an obstinate man, who is impenetrable by new 
ideas, an ass or a donkey. 

1 A. C. 4966, 7729, 2762. C. L. 182. "White Horse," 4. 



3 6 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



THE ASS. 

TN our more particular examination of mental 
characteristics, we will begin with those fig- 
ured in the ass, attending first to the nature of the 
animal. Tristram says of him : — 

" When we read of the ass in Holy Scripture we 
must not picture to ourselves the stunted, degraded, 
spiritless, and ill-used creature which we too often 
meet with in northern countries, where the ass has 
degenerated both in size and spirit from the power- 
ful and nimble animal of the East. The ass is less 
capable of enduring cold than the horse, and has 
often degenerated as it has advanced northwards. 

" In Syria, it has almost as much care bestowed 
on it as the horse ; it is groomed and well fed, 
always obtaining its share of barley with its equine 
companions ; great attention is paid to the cultiva- 
tion of the breed, and the finest and tallest he-asses 
are carefully selected. . . . They have often great 
vivacity, and exhibit both ingenuity and humor, 
sometimes decidedly mischievous. One of our asses 



THE ASS. 



37 



which had been severely beaten for misconduct by 
a member of our party, never forgot the circum- 
stance, but, while ready to sniff and caress any of 
the others, would stand demurely whenever his old 
enemy was near, as if unconscious of his presence, 
until he was within reach of his heels, when a sharp 
sudden kick, with a look of more than ordinary 
asinine stolidity, was the certain result. The 
Eastern ass will accomplish quite as long a day's 
journey as the horse or the camel ; though its speed 
is not so great, it will maintain an easy trot and 
canter for hours without flagging, and always gains 
on the horse up the hills or on the broken ground.'' 

Other writers unanimously testify to the supe- 
riority of the asses of Egypt and Palestine over 
those with which we are acquainted. Yet I suppose 
that even the best asses will justify Hamerton's 
discriminating criticism : — 

" The deficiency of the ass may be expressed in 
a single word ; it is deficiency of delicacy. You 
can guide a good horse as delicately as a sailing- 
boat ; when the skilful driver has an inch to spare 
he is perfectly at his ease, and he can twist in and 
out amongst the throng of vehicles when a momen- 
tary display of self-will in the animal would be the 



38 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

cause of an immediate accident. The ass appears 
to be incapable of any delicate discipline of this 
kind. He may be strong, swift, courageous, -entirely 
free from any serious vice ; but he is always in a 
greater or less degree unmanageable. When he is 
really vicious, that is another matter. There is no 
end to his inventions, for he is quite as intelligent 
as the horse, and a thousand times more indifferent 
to man's opinion or man's punishment. I have 
seen a donkey feign death so perfectly as to take in 
everybody but his master, who had been too often 
a spectator of that little comedy." l 

This waywardness is very strongly marked in 
asses as we commonly know them ; they stop 
when they please, and go when they please ; their 
own whims they will follow, no matter at what 
inconvenience to their rider, with a headstrong 
assurance that they know what is best ; and only 
the most patient coaxing, or blows which seem 
really cruel, will affect their resolution. 

In contrast with this somewhat slow, minute, 
and self-willed character, — that we may see both 

1 Chapters on Animals. 



THE ASS. 



39 



natures more distinctly by comparison, — the horses 
of the Arabs, which are probably as far superior to 
ours for riding purposes as are the asses, seem to 
be almost perfect embodiments of their masters' 
love of going. A well-bred Arab mare is off like 
the wind, as the tension of her master's body and 
the tightening grasp of the knees betoken his 
desire, her delicate ears straining to catch every 
sound, and her sensitive skin every lightest touch, 
of command. A touch upon the neck guides her, 
the relaxation of her rider's . body slackens her 
speed almost as if she were his own organs of 
locomotion. And the same responsiveness to the 
human will is in a great degree characteristic of 
all good horses. 

To complete the contrast, it should be added 
that the speed of horses is, as a whole, considerably 
superior, though they are not so able to pick their 
way carefully over stony paths and hill-sides. 
Horses also require a somewhat more generous 
diet of good grass and grain, and would starve on 
the coarse shrubs and thistles which asses eat with 



4 o CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

pleasure, and sometimes in preference to better 
fare. 

Man, as a rider, represents the human will with 
its power to choose good or evil, and to compel 
the reasoning, thinking mind to support it in the 
ways of its choice. 

A generous horse, in the good sense, represents 
a mind that delights in thinking the truth which 
the spiritual will desires. It bounds lightly over 
natural truths, using them as supports to its flight, 
but giving its first attention to the spiritual love 
which it bears. An ass, picking its way more 
carefully among the stones, heeding its rider less 
and the objects about it more, represents in a good 
sense the right understanding of natural things. 

The horse represents, Swedenborg says, 1 the 
intellect y — the power of seeing the inner truth of 
things, or of understanding spiritual wisdom. The 
ass represents the power of understanding particu- 
lars of knowledge. 

1 A. C. 2761, also the treatise on "The White Horse." 



THE ASS. 4I 



Of this power of understanding, which the ass 
represents, there are several kinds. There is a 
love that takes pleasure in mere quickness of 
comprehension, sharpness of criticism, and agility 
in argumentation. It is selfish, solitary, morose, 
combative. This is the wild-ass man, Ishmael, 
of whom it is said, " His hand shall be against 
every man, and every man's hand against him." 
Of the wild ass, Tristram writes : — 

" I saw a wild ass in the oasis of Souf, which had 
been snared when a colt ; but though it had been 
kept three years in confinement, it w r as as untracta- 
ble as when first caught, biting and kicking furiously 
at every one who approached it, and never enduring 
a saddle on its back. In appearance and color it 
could not have been distinguished from one of the 
finest specimens of the tame ass." 

But though so closely resembling the tame ass in 
appearance and physical ability, it is of a different 
species. The tame ass, even when allowed to run 
wild for many generations, is subdued again as 
quickly as a wild horse ; 1 but the wild ass proper 

1 Bible Animals. 



4 2 



CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



is absolutely unwilling to be of service. In this he 
represents the power of understanding solely, for 
the selfish pleasure in the exercise, never for the 
sake of use. It is a faculty which cannot take 
interior views and see things in spiritual light, but 
still can exercise its wits naturally and remorse- 
lessly upon spiritual subjects. 

A much nobler understanding is that which, 
with similar quickness of wit, considers also the 
goodness and usefulness of the subjects of its 
thought, and is unwilling to use its powers to the 
injury of that goodness. This faculty increases in 
gentleness and nobleness with its willingness to 
serve. Yet, as the ass never adopts the riders 
will for his own, but preserves his individuality, 
and needs some watchful coercion to make his 
ways serviceable, so the understanding* of this kind 
never becomes an intelligent perception of spiritual 
wisdom which perfectly serves spiritual love, but 
always finds its pleasure in the understanding of 
the particulars of knowledge presented to it, and 
unless compelled to its work, it magnifies one or 



THE ASS. 



43 



another, and continually strays from the main 
purpose. 

Judges in olden time rode upon she-asses because 
their business was to hear and attend to all the 
practical questions brought to them, and to advise 
and decide from a right understanding of the 
goodness and truth in them. Their sons rode 
upon young asses, which represent the truths 
themselves which the judges taught, in which 
their sons were instructed. 1 In the Song of 
Deborah, she thus addresses the judges of Israel : 
w Speak, ye that ride on white asses, ye that sit in 
judgment and walk by the way." (Judges v. 10.) 
" Jair, the Gileadite, judged Israel twenty and two 
years ; and he had thirty sons that rode upon 
thirty ass-colts." (x. 3, 4.) 

It was predicted of the Lord that He would 
come to Zion " sitting upon an ass and a colt the 
foal of an ass ; " because He came then, not to 
reveal spiritual truth, but to teach what was really 



1 A. C. 2781. 



44 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



good and right in natural life. When He literally 
fulfilled the prediction, and came to Jerusalem 
upon the ass, He wept over the city, saying, " If 
thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy 
day, the things that belong unto thy peace ; but 
now they are hid from thine eyes." He went into 
the temple, and drove out them that sold oxen and 
sheep and doves, and overthrew the tables of the 
money-changers, and said, " It is written, My 
house shall be called of all nations a house of 
prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves." 
And these are just such things as a noble judge 
of Israel, not now revealing spiritual truth, but 
teaching genuine natural goodness and truth, 
should do and teach. 

But when the coming of the Lord to open the 
Scriptures, to reveal the inner life of all things, 
and to give intelligence in spiritual truth, is pre- 
dicted, the form of representation is changed. John 
says, " I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white 
horse, and He that sat upon him is called faithful 
and true, and in righteousness He doth judge and 



THE ASS. 4S 



make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and 
upon His head were many crowns : and He had a 
name written which no one knew but He Himself. 
And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in 
blood ; and His name is called, The Word of God. 
And the armies which are in heaven followed Him 
upon white horses, clothed in linen white and clean : 
and He had upon His vesture and upon His thigh 
a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords." 
(Rev. xix. 11-16.) Thus the Lord is represented 
as to His Divine intelligence concerning the 
heaven of angels and the spiritual life of men ; 
and upon those who now receive and follow Him 
He bestows spiritual intelligence in the interior 
things of the Word, and the truth which angels 
think and live, which is represented by white 
horses upon which they ride. 1 

One other representation we are now prepared 
to enjoy ; which is, that when the Lord was born 
into the world, He was first laid in a manger. 

1 Citations above, also A. R. 611. 



46 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

In the manger, asses and horses find their food. 
In the best sense, asses represent the understand- 
ing of what is good and right in practical affairs, 
and horses intelligence in spiritual things, and this 
understanding and intelligence are nourished by 
instruction in truth from the Word. But the truth 
of the Word is from the Lord and is the Lord; 
and He first comes consciously to us when we, 
loving the rightness or the spiritual beauty of 
the truth of the Word, perceive that it is Himself, 
— His own thought with His life in it. To every 
one's consciousness He first lies in the manger. 



THE MULE. 47 



THE MULE. 

A NOTHER kind of understanding intermediate 
between these two, is the understanding of 
natural truth in the light of spiritual intelligence. 
The animal which represents this understanding 
is the mule, the offspring of the ass and the mare. 
Mr. Wood remarks : — 

" It is a very strange circumstance that the off- 
spring of these two animals should be, for some 
purposes, far superior to either of the parents, a 
well-bred mule having the lightness, sure-footed- 
ness, and hardy endurance of the ass, together with 
the increased size and muscular development of the 
horse. Thus it is peculiarly adapted either for the 
saddle or for the conveyance of burdens over a 
rough or desert country." He adds, " The mules 
that are most generally serviceable are bred from 
the male ass and the mare, those which have the 
horse as the father and the ass as the mother being 
small and comparatively valueless. " 



4 8 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE, 

The reason of this seems to be that this smaller 
mule has the spirit and desires of the horse with 
only the faculties of the ass ; and must correspond 
to a mental state in which spiritual intelligence can 
exercise itself only through a knowledge of natural 
truth, seeing this, however, I should suppose, more 
intelligently, and using it more generously in 
the service of the spiritual man. The larger mule 
would have the more moderate ambition of the ass 
with the larger abilities of the horse, and would 
correspond to natural truth as considered by the 
faculties of spiritual intelligence, and thus to a 
rational and more comprehensive understanding 
of natural things in their relation to one another 
and to spiritual things. It was on account of this 
somewhat nobler understanding of natural things 
which the mule represented that kings formerly 
rode upon mules, as judges upon asses ; and that 
Solomon was mounted upon David's mule, was 
equivalent to placing him upon the judgment-seat 
of the kingdom. 

The mule is, however, in moral quality still 



THE MULE. 49 



an ass. Mr. Wood continues his description 
thus : — 

fl That the mule was as obstinate and contentious 
an animal in Palestine as it is in Europe, is evident 
from the fact that the Eastern mules of the present 
day are quite as troublesome as their European 
brethren. They are very apt to shy at any thing 
or nothing at all ; they bite fiercely, and every now 
and then they indulge in a violent kicking fit, 
flinging out their heels with wonderful force and 
rapidity, and turning round on their fore-feet so 
quickly that it is hardly possible to approach them. 
There is scarcely a traveller in the Holy Land who 
has not some story to tell about the mule and its 
perverse disposition." 

Probably every one feels in his own mind the 
difference as to gentleness and charity between a 
rational understanding of natural things, though it 
be with a view to their spiritual relations, and an 
intelligent delight in spiritual truth for the sake of 
the life of Heaven. There is the same difference 
between the temper of both ass and mule and that 
of a good horse. 

3 D 



So 



CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



THE CAMEL. 

A NOTHER animal most important for trans- 
portation under certain circumstances is the 
camel. An excellent account of him is given by 
Mr. Wood, from which I will quote at some length, 
because we have so little personal acquaintance 
with the animal, though the mental character 
which he symbolizes is much more familiar. I 
will premise that the camel is fitted for its desert 
life especially by its power of storing nourishment 
in its hump and w r ater in one of its stomachs, so 
that for several days at a time it can journey 
comfortably with small supplies of both. Mr. 
Wood continues : — 

" The food of the camel is very simple, being, in 
fact, any thing that it can get. As it proceeds on 
its journey, it manages to browse as it goes along, 
bending its long neck to the ground, and cropping 
the scanty herbage without a pause. Camels have 
been known to travel for twenty successive days, 



THE CAMEL. SI 



passing over some eight hundred miles of ground, 
without receiving any food except that which they 
gathered for themselves by the way. The favorite 
food of the camel is a shrub called the ghada, 
growing to six feet or so in height, and forming a 
feathery tuft of innumerable little green twigs, very 
slender and flexible. It is so fond of this shrub 
that a camel can scarcely ever pass a bush without 
turning aside to crop it ; and even though it be 
beaten severely for its misconduct, it will repeat 
the process at the next shrub that comes in sight. 
It also feeds abundantly on the thorn-bushes which 
grow so plentifully in that part of the world ; and 
though the thorns are an inch or two in length, 
very strong, and as sharp as needles, the hard, 
horny palate of the animal enables it to devour 
them with perfect ease." 

This is the manner of feeding, however, only in 
crossing the desert and when more nourishing food 
cannot be had. At other times it is well fed, and 
it is essential to a successful journey that at the 
start it be in good flesh, with a full, firm hump of 
fat. 

" These advantages would be useless without an- 
other, — i.e., the foot. The mixed stones and sand 



52 



CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



of the desert would ruin the feet of almost any 
animal, and it is necessary that the camel should 
be furnished with a foot that cannot be split by 
heat like the hoof of a horse, that is broad enough 
to prevent the creature from sinking into the sand, 
and is tough enough to withstand the action of the 
rough and burning soil. Such a foot does the 
camel possess. It consists of two long toes resting 
upon a hard elastic cushion with a tough and horny 
sole. . . . Owing to the division of the toes, it spreads 
as the weight comes upon it, and thus gives a firm 
footing on loose ground. ... In consequence of this 
structure, the camel sinks less deeply into the ground 
than any other animal. ... It is popularly thought 
that hills are impracticable to the camel, but it is 
able to climb even rocky ground from which a horse 
would recoil. ,, 

The ordinary camels are large and clumsy ; but 
in the eyes of an Arab a good deloul, or dromedary, 
"is one of the finest sights in the world/' 

" The limbs of the deloul are long and wiry, having 
not an ounce of superfluous fat upon them, the shoul- 
ders are very broad, and the hump, though firm and 
hard, is very small. . . . Instead of plodding along 
at the rate of three miles an hour, which is the 



THE CAMEL. 



53 



average speed of the common camel, the deloul 
can cover, if lightly loaded, nine or ten miles an 
hour, and go on at the same pace for a wonderful 
time, its long legs swinging and its body swaying 
as if it were but an animated machine. Delouls 
have been reported to have journeyed for nearly 
fifty hours without a single stop for rest, during 
which time the animals must have traversed nearly 
five hundred miles. Such examples must, however, 
be exceptional, implying, as they do, an amount of 
endurance on the part of the rider equal to that of 
the animal, and even a journey of half that distance 
is scarcely possible to ordinary men on delouls." 

The stern gravity of the camel's character is 
most strikingly shown by its young, of which it is 
said that it is not one whit more playful than its 
parents. 

" Unlike almost all other animals, the camel 
seems to have no idea of play, and even the young 
camel of a month or two old follows its mother with 
the same steady, regular pace which she herself 
maintains/' 

"The camels know their master well, some of 
them being more affectionate than others. But 
they are liable to fits of strange fury, in which 



S4 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



case even their own masters are not safe from 
them. They are also of a revengeful nature, and 
have an unpleasant faculty of treasuring up an 
injury until they can find a time of repaying it." 

Several instances are related by travellers of the 
cruel murder of their masters by camels in revenge 
for harsh treatment, after days of delay. 

" Still, it is not a clever animal. If its master 
should fall off its back, it never dreams of stopping, 
as a well-trained horse would do, but proceeds at 
the same plodding pace, leaving his master to catch 
it if he can. Should it turn out of the way to crop 
some green thorn-bush, it would go on in the same 
direction, never thinking of turning back into the 
right road unless directed by its rider. Should the 
camel stray, ' it is a thousand to one that he will 
never find his way back to his accustomed home 
or pasture, and the first man who picks him up will 
have no particular shyness to get over : . . . the 
losing of his old master and of his former cameline 
companions gives him no regret, and occasions no 
endeavor to find them again/ " 

" The camel never makes way for any one, its 
instinct leading it to plod onward in its direct 
course. Through innate stupidity, according to 



THE CAMEL. 



55 



Mr. Palgrave, it goes straight forwards in the 
direction to which its head happens to be pointed, 
and is too foolish even to think of stopping unless 
it hears the signal for halt." 

It is no kindly charity that is thus described, 
nor gentle spiritual affection for truth. It is a 
stern mind, comprehensive in its grasp of natural 
principles, unpitying and unwearying in its appli- 
cation of them. It is a mind that applies general 
principles regardless of their particular conse- 
quences. 1 It is the faculty which trains youth 
for physical contests through hardship and severe 
discipline. It is the reformer who would cut off 
abuses by sweeping laws heedless of the injuries 
which they must also inflict. It is John the 
Baptist, who came, as his name implies, to cut off 
the abuses of life into which the Jews had fallen, 
and compel them to straight, honest, upright ways 
in which the Lord could come to them. A fearless 
rebuker of king, soldiers, Pharisees, and common 
people alike, he was clothed in camel's hair, he 

1 A. C. 27S1, 3048, end. 



st 



CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



lived in the wilderness, and braved the death which 
his own righteous severity provoked. 

The camel lives in the desert because the camel- 
mind cares not to produce, but to destroy the 
growth of abuses ; it thrives upon hard, negative 
prohibitions, where others would starve for want 
of pleasant, kindly words and acts. He chews the 
cud, because such a mind meditates upon and 
generalizes all its knowledge. He does not divide 
the hoof because it does not consider the kindliness 
and usefulness of its steps ; it cares only for their 
rightfulness. The breadth of the foot is its power 
of generalizing the facts upon which it depends. 
His water-stomach is its ample memory of cleans- 
ing truth ; his' hump the memory of the good 
results of discipline and reform. 



ANTELOPES AND DEER. 



OEVERAL species of antelopes and deer are 
mentioned in the Bible under various names, 
which in our version are often mistranslated. 
Some of the species are not satisfactorily deter- 
mined ; but there seems to be no doubt that 
" hart " and " hind " are names rightly applied to 
the male and the female of true deer, perhaps of 
several species, and that the "wild roe" of our 
translation is the gazelle, one of the most familiar 
and graceful of antelopes. We will confine our- 
selves to these as types ; and from these others 
will readily be distinguished when they are accu- 
rately known. 

Of antelopes, in general, Mr. Wood writes : * — 

" Resembling the deer in many respects, they 
are easily to be distinguished from those animals 

1 Nat. Hist., "Antelopes." 

3* 



53 



CORRESPONDENCES OF THE, BIBLE. 



by the character of the horns, which are hollow 
at the base, set upon a solid core like those of the 
oxen, and are permanently retained throughout the 
life of the animal. Indeed, the antelopes are allied 
very closely to the sheep and goats, and, in some 
instances, are very goat-like in external form. In 
all cases the antelopes are light and elegant of 
body, their limbs are gracefully slender, and are 
furnished with small cloven hoofs. The tail is never 
of any great length, and in some species is very 
short. The horns, set above the eyebrows, are either 
simply conical, or are bent so as to resemble the two 
horns of the ancient lyre." 

The gazelles of Palestine, Tristram thus describes 
from his own observation : — 

" It is not so much because it yields savory meat 
as from its swiftness, grace, beauty, and gentleness 
that the gazelle is best known. ... It is by far the 
most abundant of all the large game in Palestine ; 
indeed it is the only wild animal of the chase which 
an ordinary traveller has any chance of seeing. 
Small herds of gazelle are to be found in every 
part of the country, and in the south they congre- 
gate in herds of near a hundred together. One 
such herd I met with at the southern end of the 
Jebel Usdum, or salt mountain, south of the Dead 



ANTELOPES AND DEER. 59 



Sea, where they had congregated to drink of the 
only sweet spring within several miles, Ain Beida. 
Though generally considered an animal of the desert 
and the plains, the gazelle appears at home every- 
where. It shares the rocks of Engedi with the wild- 
goats ; it dashes over the wide expanse of the desert 
beyond Beersheba ; it canters in single file under 
the monastery of Marsaba. We found it in the 
glades of Carmel, and it often springs from its leafy 
covert on the back of Tabor, and screens itself under 
the thorn-bushes of Gennesaret. Among the gray 
hills of Galilee it is still 'the roe upon the mountains 
of Bether/ and I have seen a little troop of gazelle 
feeding on the Mount of Olives, close to Jerusalem 
itself. 

" While, in the open glades of the south, it is the 
wildest of game, and can only be approached, unless 
by chance, at its accustomed drinking places, and 
that before the dawn of morning, in the glades of 
Galilee it is very easily surprised, and trusts to the 
concealment of its covert for safety. I have repeat- 
edly startled the gazelle from a brake only a few 
yards in front of me ; and once, when ensconced out 
of sight in a storax bush, I watched a pair of gazelle 
with their kid which the dam was suckling. Ever 
and anon both the soft-eyed parents would gambol 
with it as though fawns themselves. 



60 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

" In Gilead, in the forest districts especially, . . . 
the ariel gazelle is extremely numerous, and in riding 
among the oaks we were continually putting up 
small troops. It is, if possible, a more beautiful 
creature than the common gazelle, of which it is 
now considered only a local variety. ,, 

Of the ariel, Mr. Wood writes : — 

" So exquisitely graceful are its movements, and 
with such light activity does it traverse the ground, 
that it seems almost to set at defiance the laws of 
gravitation, and, like the fabled Camilla, to be able to 
tread the grass without bending a single green blade. 
When it is alarmed, and runs with its fullest speed, 
it lays its head back, so that the nose projects for- 
ward, while the horns lie almost as far back as the 
shoulders, and then skims over the ground with 
such marvellous celerity that it seems rather to fly 
than to run, and cannot be overtaken even by the 
powerful, long-legged, and long-bodied greyhounds 
which are employed in the chase by the native 
hunters." 

Some of the general characteristics of antelopes 
appear more clearly from the descriptions of several 
kinds. Of the " spring-bok," a South African ante- 
lope, it is said : l — 

1 Wood's Nat. Hist. 



ANTELOPES AND DEER. 6 1 

u The spring-bok is a marvellously timid animal, 
and will never cross a road if it can avoid the neces- 
sity. When it is forced to do so, it often compro- 
mises the difficulty by leaping over the spot which 
has been tainted by the foot of man." 

The pallah, another South African antelope, " has 
a curious habit of walking away when alarmed, in 
the quietest and most silent manner imaginable, 
lifting up its feet high from the ground, lest it 
should haply strike its foot against a dry twig and 
give an alarm to its hidden foe. Pallahs have also 
a custom of walking in single file, each following 
the steps of its leader with a blind confidence." 

The Indian antelope, or sasin, " is a wonderfully 
swift animal, and quite despises such impotent foes 
as dogs and men, fearing only the falcon. ... At 
each bound the sasin will cover twenty-five or thirty 
feet of ground, and will rise even ten or eleven feet 
from the earth, so that it can well afford to despise 
the dogs. ... It is a most wary animal, not only 
setting sentinels to keep a vigilant watch, as is the 
case with so many animals, but actually detaching 
pickets in every direction, to a distance of several 
hundred yards from the main body of the herd." 

Of the " rhoode-bok," Mr. Wood quotes from 
Capt. Drayson : — 



62 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

" It is very amusing to watch the habits of this 
wary buck when it scents danger in the bush. Its 
movements become most cautious ; lifting its legs 
with high but very slow action, it appears to be 
walking on tiptoe among the briers and underwood, 
its ears moving in all directions, and its nose pointed 
up-wind, or towards the suspected locality. If it 
hears a sudden snapping of a branch, or any other 
suspicious sound, it stands still like a statue, the 
foot which is elevated remains so, and the animal 
scarce shows a sign of life for near a minute. It 
then moves slowly onwards with the same cautious 
step, hoping thus to escape detection." 

The chamois of Switzerland are, perhaps, as shy 
of man as any antelopes. Of some that were 
domesticated as far as possible, it is related that 
they were "particularly inquisitive and curious, 
prying into every thing ; " and, what is probably 
in a greater or less degree characteristic of the 
family, " they would never suffer themselves to be 
touched ; a finger not having yet reached them. 
They would admit of the hand being softly brought 
near their persons, but, immediately as it arrived 
within an inch of their head or body, they would 



ANTELOPES AND DEER. 6$ 

vault, suddenly and lightly, from the proffered con- 
tamination." 

Most of these characteristics are common to 
antelopes and deer. " There is scarcely any 
animal," Mr. Wood says, " so watchful as the 
female deer. It is comparatively easy to deceive 
the stag who leads the herd, but to evade the 
eyes and ears of the hinds is a very different 
business, and taxes all the resources of a practised 
hunter." 1 The desire to escape observation shows 
itself almost as soon as the fawn is born. " Mr. 
St. John relates that he once saw a very young 
red deer, not more than an hour old, standing 
by its mother, and receiving her caresses. As 
soon as the watchful parent caught sight of the 
stranger, she raised her forefoot, and administered 
a gentle tap to her offspring, which immediately 
laid itself flat upon the ground, and crouched close 
to the earth, as if endeavoring to delude the 
supposed enemy into an idea that it was nothing 
more than a block of stone." 

* Nat. Hist. 



64 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE, 

Both antelopes and deer chew the cud and 
divide the hoof. They therefore were among the 
animals permitted for food, and correspond to 
some sort of kind and pleasant affections, not 
stimulating to the understanding merely, but 
encouraging to the heart. These affections are 
akin to the mutual love, charity, and helpfulness 
represented by sheep, goats, and oxen ; but they 
love their own sweet will, and choose to show 
their graceful gentleness only in their own way, 
in entire freedom. The animals live in the forests 
and uncultivated plains, which represent the natural 
mind either unsubdued or in a state of rest. The 
Lord said to His disciples, " Come ye yourselves 
apart into a desert place, and rest awhile ; " and the 
desert or uncultivated place represents the state of 
rest. The animals, therefore, are forms of impulses, 
gentle, kindly, attractive, and freedom-loving, made 
natural either by inheritance or by habit. The 
most graceful and attractive of them come and go 
almost like the thoughts, nearly intangible because 
of their shyness. Others are more sober and sub- 



ANTELOPES AND DEER. 65 

stantial ; but none bend themselves to the steady 
work of life. 

Such affections from inheritance abound in youth 
of both sexes, and produce light, graceful, shy man- 
ners in girls, polite, courteous behavior in young 
men, and the pleasant, quick-witted gambols of 
both, — innocent and entertaining, but utterly averse 
to labor or method. They are distinguished from 
the wild-ass affections that belong to the same age, 
in that they are not rude, critical, and contemptu- 
ous of others, but are gentle and affectionate, and 
desirous of pleasing. 

Such affection made natural from a spiritual origin 
is thus described : In the lamentation of David over 
Saul and Jonathan, he says, " The gazelle of Israel 
is slain upon thy high places : how are the mighty 
fallen ! . . . How are the mighty fallen in the midst 
of the battle ! O Jonathan, slain in thine high places. 
I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan : very 
pleasant hast thou been to me ; thy love to me 
was wonderful, passing the love of women." 
(2 Sam. i. 19, 25, 26.) 



66 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

It seems to be Jonathan who is called the gazelle 
of Israel ; for the same expression, " slain upon 
thine high places," is applied to him only. And 
his representation must be natural delight in the 
protection of the Lord, through the truth. Saul 
represents the natural reason to which the king- 
dom of the mind is first intrusted, and which is 
dethroned because it decides for itself instead of 
patiently discerning and obeying the truth from the 
Lord. Yet from this understanding, even through its 
disappointments, is begotten the truth that wisdom 
of life is from the Lord alone, and a happy trustful- 
ness in having it so. This is represented by the 
light-hearted, generous Jonathan, whose very name 
means, The gift of Jehovah. But not to Jonathan 
was the kingdom given ; for not his was the patient 
application of the truth to life, which was repre- 
sented by David. " He stripped himself of the 
robe that was upon him, and gave it to David, and 
his garments, even to his sword, and to his bow, 
and to his girdle." He knew that in doing this he 
was giving him the kingdom ; and he meant it, 



ANTELOPES AND DEER. 67 

and asked nothing for himself but that David 
should be kind to his children. (1 Sam. xx. 15.) 

With characteristic solitariness and trustfulness, 
attended only by his armor-bearer, he attacked a 
strong garrison of the Philistines, saying, " It may 
be that the Lord will work for us ; for there is no 
restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few/' 
(1 Sam. xiv. 6.) And afterwards, when he inno- 
cently brought upon himself his father's curse by 
tasting of the forbidden honey as he passed, so 
attractive was his generous chivalry to the people, 
that they rescued him from death, and took upon 
themselves the curse. There was dutifulness also 
with his romantic affection ; for when his beloved 
friend was persecuted and fled, Jonathan turned 
faithfully back to his father, and for him fought 
valiantly, and with him laid down his life upon Mt. 
Gilboa. 

The same Hebrew word that means a " gazelle " 
is often translated "beauty," and sometimes "glory ;" 
probably because the gazelle was so marked a type 
of beauty. In these cases it represents the grace- 



68 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

fulness of affections that have become easy and 
natural. 

But natural good affection is not always from 
the Lord, sometimes being insincere and interiorly 
selfish ; and such affection is meant by the chased 
gazelle (or roe) in Isaiah. " Therefore I will shake 
the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of its 
place, in the wrath of the Lord of Hosts, and in the 
day of His fierce anger. And it shall be as the 
chased roe, and as a sheep that no man taketh up " 
(xiii. 13, 14), speaking of the judgment, in which 
merely external and hypocritical forms of goodness 
will be dispersed. 

The horns of antelopes are permanent, and are 
composed of fibrous, hairy horn, like those of our 
domestic animals. They represent the knowledge 
which these affections possess of the delightfulness 
and propriety of their free impulses ; which they 
use in self-defence, and sometimes in friendly 
rivalry. 

The horns of deer are very different in form 
and material ; the animals are generally somewhat 



ANTELOPES AND DEER. 69 

larger in size, inhabit more northerly homes, and 
possess more variable tempers ; some of them also, 
as the reindeer, are so far domesticated as to be of 
service to owners who will follow them in their 
necessary migrations. Their horns are thus de- 
scribed by Mr. Wood : — 

The horns of deer " belong only to the male 
animals, are composed of solid, bony substances, 
and are shed and renewed annually during the life 
of the animal. The process by which the horns 
are developed, die, and are shed, is a very curious 
one. ... In the beginning of the month of March 
the stag is lurking in the sequestered spots of his 
forest home, harmless as his mate and as timorous. 
Soon a pair of prominences make their appearance 
on his forehead, covered with a velvety skin. In a 
few days these little prominences have attained 
some length, and give the first indication of their 
true form. Grasp one of these in the hand, and it 
will be found burning hot to the touch ; for the 
blood runs fiercely through the velvety skin, depos- 
iting at every touch a minute portion of bony matter. 
More and more rapidly grow the horns, the carotid 
arteries enlarging in order to supply a sufficiency 
of nourishment, and in the short period of ten weeks 



7 o 



CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



the enormous mass of bony matter has been com- 
pleted. Such a process is almost, if not entirely, 
without a parallel in the history of the animal 
kingdom. When the horns have reached their due 
development, the bony rings at their bases, through 
which the arteries pass, begin to thicken, and by 
gradually filling up the holes, compress the blood- 
vessels, and ultimately obliterate them. The velvet 
now having no more nourishment, loses its vitality ? 
and is soon rubbed off in shreds against tree-trunks, 
branches, or any inanimate objects. The horns fall 
off in February, and in a very short time begin to 
be renewed. These ornaments are very variable 
at the different periods of the animal's life, the age 
of the stag being well indicated by the number of 
' tines ' upon his horns/' * 

Of the moose, or elk, he writes : — 

" It is as wary as any of the deer tribe, being 
alarmed by the slightest sound or the faintest scent 
that gives warning of an enemy. . . . Generally the 
elk avoids the presence of man, but in some seasons 
of the year he becomes seized with a violent excite- 
ment that finds vent in fighting with every living 
creature that may cross his path. His weapons are 
his horns and forefeet, the latter being used with 

* Nat. Hist., "Deer." 



ANTELOPES AND DEER. 



71 



such terrible effect that a single blow is sufficient 
to slay a wolf on the spot." l 

"The reindeer in its wild state is a migratory 
animal, making annual journeys from the woods to 
the hills, and back again, according to the season. 
. . . Even in the domesticated state, the reindeer is 
obliged to continue its migrations, so that the owners 
of the tame herds are perforce obliged to become 
partakers in the annual pilgrimages. " 2 

u The wapiti, or Carolina stag, lives in herds of 
variable numbers, some herds containing only ten 
or twenty members, while others are found num- 
bering three or four hundred. These herds are 
always under the command of one old and experi- 
enced buck, who exercises the strictest discipline 
over his subjects, and exacts implicit and instanta- 
neous obedience. When he halts, the whole herd 
suddenly stop ; and when he moves on, the herd 
follow his example. . . . This position of dignity is 
not easily assumed, and is always won by dint of 
sheer strength and courage, the post being held 
against all competitors at the point of the horn. 
The combats that take place between the males 
are of a singularly fierce character, and often end 
in the death of the weaker competitor. An in- 
stance is known where a pair of these animals have 

1 Nat. Hist. 2 Nat. Hist. 



7 2 



CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



perished, . . . their horns having been inextricably 
locked together." * 

Of the Virginian deer, or carjacou, "the male is 
a most pugnacious animal, and engages in deadly 
contests with those of his own sex. ... In these 
conflicts one of the combatants is not unfrequently 
killed on the spot, and there are many instances of 
the death of both parties in consequence of the 
horns interlocking within each other, and so binding 
the two opponents in a common fate. To find these 
locked horns is not a very uncommon occurrence, 
and in one instance three pair of horns were found 
thus entangled together, the skulls and skeletons 
lying as proofs of the deadly nature of the strife. 
It is in October and November that the buck be- 
comes so combative, and in a very few weeks he 
has lost all his sleek condition, shed his horns, and 
retired to the welcome shelter of the forest/' 2 

In the parting blessing which Jacob pronounced 
upon his sons, he said, " Naphtali is a hind let loose, 
speaking words of elegance." Naphtali signifies 
strugglings, or, spiritually, temptations. And, as 
Swedenborg remarks, " Liberation from a state of 
temptations is compared to a hind let loose, because 

1 Nat. Hist. 2 Nat. Hist. 



ANTELOPES AND DEER. 



73 



the hind is a forest animal, loving liberty more than 
others, to which the natural also is similar, for this 
loves to be in the delight of its affections, hence, in 
freedom, for what is of affection is free." 1 He also 
says that these words describe " the state after 
temptation as to the spontaneous eloquence which 
results from perception/' 2 

Perhaps the gentle, free affections which deer 
represent differ from those signified by antelopes 
in this, that their gentleness, freedom, and beauty 
are the result of trials and temptations. The 
periodically irritable, contentious, moody states of 
deer are likenesses of states of temptation, which 
are followed by times of humility and shyness, and 
then by new confidence, happiness, and freedom, 
the right to which is defended by branching antlers, 
not of truth perceived and known concerning itself, 
like the horns of antelopes, but of the very sub- 
stance of its bones, from the facts of its own life, 



i A. R. 354. 2 a. C. 9413, 3929. 

4 



74 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

to which every new round of experience adds a 
new array. 

These at length become the means by which it 
contends for superiority and precedence, and then 
in conscious weakness it lays them down, and 
retires in mortification. 

The fleet and confident steps of affection that 
has become free and natural are thus described in 
the Word : " He maketh my feet like hinds', and 
setteth me upon my high places." (Ps. xviii. 34.) 
" The Lord Jehovih is my strength : He maketh 
my feet like hinds', and maketh me to walk upon 
my high places." (Hab. iii. 19.) 

Again, it is written concerning the effect of the 
coming of the Lord, " Then shall the lame man 
leap as a hart " (Isa. xxxv. 6), referring to those 
who from ignorance or from lack of good love find 
the way of good life painful and difficult, but, as it 
were, leap with confident strength and pleasure 
when good love from the Lord becomes natural to 
them. 



ANTELOPES AND DEER, y s 



And once more we read, " As the hart panteth 
after the water-brooks, 'so panteth my soul after 
Thee, O God " (Ps. xlii. 2), where the feverish 
desire of the soul in time of temptation, for cooling 
and consoling truth, is compared to the thirst of 
the hart, which in the dry season must make long 
journeys to the lessening streams. 



7 6 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



THE LION. 

"DUFFON gives us a description of the lion, 
which, if somewhat enthusiastic, contains so 
genuine an appreciation of his good qualities that 
we cannot afford to lose it. He says : — 

" History tells us of lions attached to triumphal 
cars, of lions conducted to war or led to the chase, 
and which, faithful to their master, employed their 
strength and courage only against their enemies. 
It is certain that the lion, taken young and brought 
up among domestic animals, easily accustoms him- 
self to live and even to play innocently with them ; 
that he is gentle towards his masters, and even 
caressing, especially, while young ; and that, if his 
natural ferocity reappears sometimes, he rarely 
turns it against those who have done him good. 
As his movements are very impetuous, and his 
appetites very vehement, we must not suppose that 
the impressions of education can always balance 
them. There is danger in allowing him to suffer 
too long from hunger, or in tormenting him without 



THE LION. 



77 



purpose. Not only is he irritated at ill treatment, 
but he remembers it, and seems to meditate ven- 
geance, as he also preserves the grateful memory 
of benefits. I could cite a great number of facts, 
in which I confess that I have found some exag- 
geration, but which, nevertheless, are sufficiently 
well founded to prove at least, taken together, that 
his anger is noble, his courage magnanimous, his 
nature impressible. He has been seen often to 
disdain small enemies, to despise their insults, and 
to pardon their offensive liberties. He has been 
seen, led into captivity, to be wearied with his con- 
dition without becoming irritable, to assume, on 
the contrary, gentle habits, to. obey his master, to 
caress the hand that feeds it, sometimes to give 
life to the animals that had been thrown to him for 
prey, and, as if attached to them by his generous 
act, to continue afterwards the same protection to 
them, to live peaceably with them, give them a part 
of his subsistence, sometimes even allow them to 
carry it off altogether, and rather suffer hunger than 
lose the fruit of his first kind deed. 

" It can also be said that the lion is not cruel, 
since he is so only from necessity ; that he destroys 
only as much as he consumes ; and that as soon as 
he is fed he is entirely peaceful ; while the tiger, 
the wolf, and so many animals of inferior kinds, 



7 8 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

such as the fox, the martin, the pole-cat, the ferret, 
&c, put to death for the mere pleasure of killing, 
and in their many massacres seem rather to wish 
to satisfy their rage than their hunger." 

Buffon also remarks upon the perfect symme- 
try of the lion, his form being the most perfect 
expression of effective power ; and the nobleness 
of his species, — not akin to any other species, 
nor running into them by imperceptible degrees. 
He adds further: — 

" The lion when he is hungry attacks boldly all 
animals which present themselves ; but as he is 
very formidable, and all try to avoid meeting him, 
he is often obliged to hide himself, and watch for 
them to pass. He lies upon his belly in a thicket, 
from whence he springs out with so much force 
that he often seizes them at the first bound. In 
the deserts and forests, his most common food are 
gazelles and apes ; but he takes the latter only 
when they are oh the ground ; for he cannot climb 
trees like the tiger and puma." 

He speaks of the strong odor of the lion ; of 

his roar, which resembles thunder ; of his short, 

reiterated, terrible cries of anger, in uttering 



THE LION. 



79 



which " he beats his sides with his tail, beats 
the ground with it, he erects his mane, moves 
the skin of his face, stirs his great eyebrows, 
shows threatening teeth, and puts out a tongue 
armed with points so hard that it is sufficient to 
flay the skin, and cut into the flesh, without the 
help of either teeth or nails." 

From Mr. Wood we gather some further inter- 
esting details : — 

" A full-grown lion can not only knock down and 
kill, but can carry away in its mouth an ordinary 
ox ; and one of these terrible animals has been 
known to pick up a heifer in its month, and to 
leap over a wide ditch, still carrying its^ burden." 

"The lion seems to be a very incarnation of 
strength ; and, even when dead, gives a£ vivid an 
idea of concentrated power as when it tvas living. 
And when the skin is stripped from the body, the 
tremendous muscular development never fails to 
create a sensation of awe. The mustles of the 
limbs, themselves so hard as to blunt the keen- 
edged knives employed by a dissector, are envel- 
oped in their glittering sheaths, playing upon each 
other like well-oiled machinery, and terminating in 
tendons seemingly strong as steel, and nearly as 



80 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

impervious to the knife. Not until the skin is 
removed can any one form a conception of the 
enormously powerful muscles of the neck, which 
enable the lion to lift the weighty prey which it 
kills, and convey it to a place of safety." 

" Although usually unwilling to attack an armed 
man, it is one of the most courageous animals in 
existence when it is driven to fight, and if its anger 
is excited it cares little for the number of its foes, 
or the weapons with which they are armed. Even 
the dreaded fire-arms lose their terrors to an angry 
lion ; while a lioness, who fears for the safety of her 
young, is simply the most terrible animal in exist- 
ence." 

" The roar of the lion is another of the character- 
istics for which it is celebrated. There is no beast 
that can produce a sound that could for a moment 
be mistaken for the roar of the lion. The lion has 
a habit of stooping his head towards the ground 
when he roars, so that the terrible sound rolls along 
like thunder, and reverberates in many an echo in 
the far distance. Owing to this curious habit the 
roar can be heard at a very great distance, but its 
locality is rendered uncertain, and it is often diffi- 
cult to be quite sure whether the lion is to the right 
or the left of the hearer." * 

1 Bible Animals. 



THE LION. 8 X 



It is this peculiarity of the roar that makes it 
helpful in catching prey ; for at the fearful sound 
all animals are frightened, and, not distinguishing 
the direction of it, especially if it be near, they run 
towards every quarter, even into the jaws of the 
waiting lion himself. 1 

As we see the lion thus portrayed, we are struck 
with admiration at his noble courage, — amounting 
in his native condition to absolute fearlessness, — 
at the intense earnestness of his affections, as 
expressed by his voice of thunder, and shown by 
the fury of the lioness in defending her young ; 
and at his almost irresistible power. 

As animate are forms of human affections, the 
lion represents the most ardent, the most powerful, 
and the most courageous of them all. Exactly 
what this affection is appears plainly in the Apoc- 
alypse. 

At the time immediately preceding the Last 



1 Nat. Hist. 

F 



82 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

Judgment, the World of Spirits and the Church on 
earth were possessed by men who professed to 
believe in the Lord and to be His elect, who 
taught doctrines, and confirmed them from the 
Word and by much reasoning, which permitted 
them to continue in selfish and wicked lives even 
in the name of religion, and who by these means 
so obscured the truth concerning the spiritual 
states of men that it was impossible to know 
them. The universal obscurity of this truth was 
prophetically represented to John by the " book 
written within and on the back side, sealed with 
seven seals/' The grief of all who loved the 
Lord, because of this confusion, was represented 
by John's weeping " because no man was found 
worthy to open and to read the book, neither to 
look thereon." And it is added, " One of the 
elders saith unto me, Weep not ; behold, the Lion 
of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath 
prevailed to open the book, and to loose the 
seven seals thereof. And I beheld, and, lo, in 
the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, 



THE LION. g<$ 



and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb, as 
it had been slain. . . . And he came and took the 
book out of the right hand of Him that sat 
upon the throne." A The Lion here, who is also 
the Lamb, represents the power and courage of 
the Lord in His Divine Humanity to teach the 
absolute truth of human life, despite the fierce 
opposition of Scribes and Pharisees, and all their 
ecclesiastical successors. 2 

The zeal of the Lord to save men from evil and 
falsity is further represented in the Apocalypse 
by a mighty angel who came down from heaven, 
" clothed with a cloud ; and a rainbow was upon 
his head and his face was as it were the sun, and 
his feet as pillars of fire : . . . and he set his right 
foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth, 
and cried with a loud voice as when a lion 
roareth." 

Thus the lion, in relation to the Lord, is an 
image of the absolute fearlessness and invincible 
strength with which He stands by us, to teach the 



1 Rev. v. 2 A. R. 265. 



84 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

truth and to protect us from evil. We have only 
to trust Him, and we must be safe. 

But as the Lord's love for men is the most 
powerful influence operating upon them, when 
they receive it and respond to it, it becomes in 
them their most intense affection. " The lion 
hath roared ; who will not fear ? the Lord Jehovah 
hath spoken ; who can but prophesy ? " describes 
the effect of the Divine Love inspiring affection 
and clear perception of truth in the men who 
receive that Love. 

By the tribe of Judah were represented those 
who are in love to the Lord. And in the blessing 
of Judah by his father Israel, the strength and 
repose of this love is described by the words, 
" He bowed himself, he couched as a lion, and as 
an old lion ; who shall stir him up ? " The sense 
of the Lord's love in them gives them also a 
sense of irresistible power. As Swedenborg says, 
"They who are in celestial good," which is the 
good of love to the Lord from the Lord, " never 
fight, but are safe by good ; for where they come 



THE LION, 85 



the evil flee away, for the evil cannot endure their 
presence ; these are they who are signified by an 
old lion." 1 

So in the passage, " The young lions roar after 
their prey, and seek their food from God," Swe- 
denborg says, by the lions are meant the angels 
of heaven ; and by their roaring after their prey, 
is described the desire of the angels in states of 
obscurity for renewed love and wisdom from the 
Lord ; by "the sun ariseth, they gather themselves 
together, and lay them down in their dwellings," 
is meant their return into a heavenly state of 
tranquillity and peace. 2 

The angels are called young lions, and the Lord 
a Lion ; and yet I suppose that no beast of prey 
appears in the heavens ; but it may appear from 
the heavens in the world of spirits ; for it is as a 
Protector from evil that the Lord is thus repre- 
sented. 3 The obscurity of the angels, in which, 
like young lions, they seek their food from God, is 



6369. 2 a. E. 278. 3 a. c. 6441-3. 



86 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

caused by the encroachments of their own pro- 
prium ; and when they recognize it, and look to 
the Lord for deliverance, they feel His power in 
them like that of a lion ; and He gives them the 
ardent desire for good as of young lions. 

As a fierce and terrible lion the Lord appears 
to the wicked, because their loves are like fierce 
animals, and He who opposes them seems to them 
like themselves, only more fierce and powerful. 
Yet the Lion of the Lord's presence must be noble 
and magnanimous, and their lions fierce and 
relentless. Not from the Lord's zeal to save 
and protect do their lions spring ; but from their 
own lust of claiming to themselves, and ruling 
over all things. It is an intense and self-confident 
love of dominion, which tolerates no rival, when 
excited fears no danger, and crushes every one 
who will not submit to its control, preferring death 
itself to divided authority. 



THE BEAR. 



T3UFF0N states that the black bear, which is 
our American species, lives altogether upon 
fruits, vegetables, and roots, never eating flesh ; 
and that he is altogether mild and harmless. 

Our New England farmers would modify this 
statement, so far as concerns the autumn season, 
and the mother with cubs. During the summer, 
the bears live in the woods, as Buffon says, 
shunning the abodes of man, and escaping from 
him so shyly that it is difficult for hunters to find 
them at all. At this season they feed upon the 
leaves and tender twigs of trees, upon roots, ants 
which they lap greedily out of the ant-hills, the 
larvae of beetles, which they dig out of decaying 
stumps and logs, and very largely upon berries, of 
which they are extremely fond. But when berries 
fail, in the -autumn, the bears come down to the 



88 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

orchards and corn-fields, not unfrequently making 
havoc among the sheep also. Then they are 
frequently seen, and are easily taken in traps. 
At all seasons, if one come suddenly upon a 
mother with cubs, he will find her fierce, brave, 
and dangerous. "A bear bereaved of her whelps " 
is a Scripture symbol for desperate courage. 

The brown bear of Europe and Asia, Buffon 
describes as a fiercer animal, who attacks rather 
than avoids man, though finding his food and his 
home among the mountains and in the forests. 
He proceeds : — 

" The bear is not only wild, but solitary. He 
shuns all society by instinct. He removes from 
places to which men have access. He finds himself 
at his ease only in the places which still belong to 
Nature. An old cave among inaccessible rocks, a 
hollow formed by time in the trunk of an old tree, 
in the midst of a thick forest, serves him for a 
home. He retires thither alone, passes a part of 
the winter there without provisions, without going 
out from it for several weeks. . . . 

" The mother takes the greatest care of her little 
ones. She makes for them a bed of moss and 



THE BEAR. 



89 



leaves in the bottom of her cave, and nourishes 
them with milk till they can go out with her. She 
brings forth in winter, and her little ones begin to 
follow her in the spring. The male and the female 
never live together. They have their separate re- 
treats, and often far apart. ... 

" The bear has good powers of sight, of hearing, 
and of touch ; although his eye is very small com- 
pared with the size of his body, his ears are short, 
his skin thick, and his hair plentifully tufted. He 
has an excellent sense of smell, perhaps more ex- 
quisite than any other animal." 

The same naturalist describes the anatomical 

structure of the bear, but the only point which 

we can notice is that instead of walking upon 

the toes, like most other quadrupeds, the bear 

lays his whole foot upon the ground, so that what 

is commonly called the "hock joint" becomes in 

him the heel. Mr. Wood writes : — 

" As is the case with many animals, the Syrian 
bear changes its color as it grows older. When 
a cub, it is of a darkish brown, which becomes a 
light brown as it approaches maturity. But, when 
it has attained its full growth, it becomes cream- 
colored, and each succeeding year seems to lighten 



go CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



its coat, so that a very old bear is nearly as white 
as its relative of the Arctic regions. 1 . . . 

" The bear is one of the omnivorous animals, and 
is able to feed on vegetable as well as animal sub- 
stances, preferring the former when they can be 
found. There is nothing that the bear likes better 
than strawberries and similar fruits, among which 
it will revel throughout the whole fruit season, 
daintily picking the ripest berries, a>nd becoming 
wonderfully fat by the constant banquet. Some- 
times, when the fruits fail, it makes incursions 
among the cultivated grounds, and is noted for 
the ravages which it makes among the chick-peas. 
But during the colder months in the year the bear 
changes its diet, and becomes carnivorous. Some- 
times it contents itself with the various wild animals 
which it can secure, but sometimes it descends to 
the lower plains, and seizes upon the goats and sheep 
in their pastures. . . . As the bear is not swift of 
foot, but rather clumsy in its movements, it cannot 
hope to take the nimbler animals in open chase. It 
prefers to lie in wait for them in the bushes, and to 
strike them down with a sudden blow of its paw, a 
terrible weapon, which it can wield as effectively as 
a lion uses its claws." 

1 Bible Animals. 



THE DEAR. 



9 1 



After speaking of the motherly instincts of most 

animals, he says : — 

" Most terrible is the wrath of a creature which 
possesses, as is the case of the bear, the strongest 
maternal affections, added to great size, tremendous 
weapons, and gigantic strength. . . . When the bear 
fights, it delivers rapid strokes with its armed paw, 
tearing away every thing that it strikes. A blow 
from a bears paw has been several times known to 
strip the entire skin, together with the hair, from a 
man's head, and, when fighting with dogs, to tear 
its enemies open as if each claw were a chisel." l 

An anecdote, which seems to me highly charac- 
teristic, is related of a pet bear attached to a British 
regiment. The bear u was promoted to the office 
of seutinel over the property contained in a baggage- 
wagon. Unfortunately the poor animal's sense of 
justice was so acute that it executed its responsi- 
ble office with too much zeal. On one occasion a 
soldier had gone to the wagon, with the intention 
of robbing it of some of the property contained 
therein, and quietly inserted his arm under the cov- 

1 Bible Animals. 



9 2 



CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



erings. His intended depredation was, however, 
soon checked by the teeth of the watchful bear, 
which bit his arm with such severity that the limb 
was rendered useless for the rest of the man's life. 
Some little time after this occurrence, a child 
belonging to the regiment made a similar attempt 
upon the wagon, and was killed by the bear in its 
anxiety to fulfil the trust that had been committed 
to its charge. ,, * In consequence of its too severe 
and literal faithfulness, the poor beast had to be 
shot. 

In addition to these accounts, it should be 
mentioned that the bear, when taken young and 
kindly treated, becomes quite tame, and is teach- 
able ; that he is playful, enjoys rough fun, — young 
bears taking great pleasure in tumbling one another 
over in the snow, — and is extravagantly fond of 
honey, which he eats eagerly, comb, young bees, 
and all, caring little for the stings of the old ones. 2 

The human affection which corresponds to this 
description is a more or less vehement love of 

1 Nat. Hist. 2 Nat. Hist. 



THE BEAR. 93 



literalness. It is an affection that loves to carry 
out a command to the letter with a grim, humorous 
enjoyment in seeing it hit in unexpected ways. It 
loves to buffet with precepts and texts, admitting 
of no explanation that does not exactly coincide 
with the letter. Though rough and surly, as well 
as humorous, it may do good service to truth and 
right by insisting upon full compliance with literal 
truth ; or, on the other hand, because of its want 
of intelligence concerning spiritual things, it may 
insist ferociously upon the literal fulfilment of 
precepts which it does not understand, even to the 
destruction of much good, gentle life. 

For example, there have been many who in a 
good spirit have insisted upon a literal and exact 
observance of the commandments in regard to the 
Sabbath and false speaking, refusing to permit 
any work on the Sabbath, however useful, and 
requiring the plainest speaking of truth, no matter 
how inappropriate. They quote the severest texts 
concerning those who do otherwise, and strike 
formidable blows with them. In proper places 



94 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



they may thus do good service. I have heard, 
also, the texts with regard to the destruction of 
the world, and a final last day, used to crush every 
hope of continued happy life in the spiritual world 
after death. Numerous like instances will occur 
to every one familiar with theological discussions 
about faith, baptism, creation, redemption, and 
other subjects. 1 ' 

An astonishing degree of strength and vehe- 
mence flows into such literal discussions, which, 
when known, one is not inclined to rouse carelessly. 
But the people who love the fallacies thus defended 
are usually silent, retiring, and solitary, shy of 
spiritual truth, especially when it explains the 
Scriptures. At this they take angry alarm, and 
quickly become furious, as if in defence of their 
life. Their dogmas strengthened with texts, they 
brandish furiously, like claw-armed paws, and strike 
blows which are certainly formidable. In states of 
inactivity they keep those dogmas constantly in 

1 See an enumeration of many such fallacies, signified by the 
feet of the bear, in "Apocalypse Explained," n. 781. 



THE BEAR. 



95 



mind, thinking them over and over unintelligently, 
as bears suck their paws. 

That bears lay the whole of their great foot on 
the ground, and dig in the ground for much of 
their food, represents a clinging to external things ; 
their extravagant fondness for honey corresponds 
to love for the pleasantness of natural knowledge. 
Swedenborg says : — 

" By a bear are signified those who read the 
Word, and do not understand it, whereby they 
involve themselves in fallacies. That these are 
signified by bears was clear to me from the bears 
which I saw in the spiritual world, and from such 
[spirits] there as w T ere clad in bear-skins, who had 
all read the Word indeed, but without seeing any 
doctrinal truth in it ; also who had confirmed the 
appearances of truth therein, and thus were involved 
in fallacies. In that world there appear bears that 
are hurtful, and bears that are harmless, and some* 
that are white ; but they are distinguished by their 
heads, those which are harmless have heads like 
calves or sheep/' x 

1 A. R. 573, also C. L. 78. 



9 6 



CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



Those with heads like calves would represent the 
power of literal truth from innocent desire to 
know what is useful ; and those with sheep's heads 
represent the power of such truth governed by 
mutual love. In the " Apocalypse Explained " he 
says : — 

"That a bear signifies power from the natural 
sense of the Word, as well with the upright as the 
wicked, may appear from the following passages : 
■ When Elisha went up to Bethel, as he was going 
in the way, there came little children out of the city 
and mocked him, and said to him, Go up, thou bald 
head ! go up, thou bald head ! And he looked back 
upon them, and saw them, and cursed them in the 
name of Jehovah ; and there came two she-bears out 
of the wood, and tare in pieces forty-two children of 
them' (2 Kings ii. 23, 24). . . . That this was not 
done by Elisha from immoderate anger and without 
just cause, may be evident from this consideration, 
that he could not be so cruel to little children for 
only saying, Go up, thou bald head. It was indeed 
a reproach against the prophet, but not a sufficient 
cause for them to be torn in pieces by bears. But 
this took place because Elisha represented the Lord 
as to the Word, thus the Word which is from the 



THE BEAR. 



97 



Lord ; by bald head was signified the Word deprived 
of its natural sense, which is the sense of the letter ; 
by the bears out of the wood is signified the power 
derived from the natural and literal sense of the 
Word, as was said above ; and by those children 
were signified those who blaspheme the Word on 
account of its literal sense being such as it is." x 

Their destruction, therefore, represents the loss 
of spiritual life in those who despise the letter of 
the Word, and their condemnation by the letter 
itself. 

David, keeping his father's flock, slew the lion 
and the bear that attacked the flock, and gave this 
to Saul as proof that he should be able to overcome 
the Philistine. And it was so, because the lion 
was a representative of the love of rule by interior 
falsities, and the bear of a similar love acting 
through literal fallacies ; and the Philistine repre- 
sents those who teach faith and not goodness, and 
seek power through both means. 

Turning from these evil things, it is pleasant to 
read that when the Lord's kingdom shall be estab- 



1 A. E. 781 

G 



98 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

lished upon the earth, " The cow and the bear shall 
feed; their young ones shall lie down together;" 
which signifies that the power of the literal sense 
of the Word will not be abused selfishly, but will 
be used wholly in companionship with neighborly 
kindness. It is also said that " The lion shall eat 
straw like the ox ; " meaning that the love of rule 
will no longer destroy spiritual life by its dreadful 
falsities, but will love and protect the innocent 
thought and life of mutual helpfulness. 



THE WOLF, 



99 



THE WOLF. 

"OUFFON remarks the external resemblance 
between the wolf and the dog ; but points 
out the great differences in their characters, and 
their mutual antipathy. He says further : — 

" Even the wild dog has not a fierce nature : he 
is easily tamed, attaches himself, and remains faith- 
ful to his master. The wolf, taken young, becomes 
tame, but not in the least attached. Nature is 
stronger than education. He recovers, with age, 
his ferocious character, and returns as soon as he 
can to his wild state. Dogs, even the roughest, 
seek the company of other animals ; they are led 
naturally to follow and accompany them ; and it is 
by instinct only, not by education, that they know 
how to guard the flocks. The wolf, on the contrary, 
is the enemy of all society ; he does not even keep 
company with those of his own species. When 
many of them are seen together, it is not a peaceful 
company, it is a warlike band, which is formed 



ioo CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

noisily, with frightful howls, and which indicates a 
plan to attack some large animal like a stag, an ox, 
or to get rid of some formidable mastiff. As soon 
as their military expedition is over they separate, 
and return in silence to their solitude. . . . 

" The wolf has great strength, especially in the 
forward parts of the body, in the muscles of the neck 
and jaw. He carries a sheep in his mouth without 
letting it touch the ground, and at the same time 
runs faster than the shepherds, so that only the 
dogs can overtake him and make him release his 
prey. He bites cruelly, and always with the more 
madness the less he is resisted ; for he is cautious 
with animals who can defend themselves. . . . 

" The wolf, though ferocious, is timid. When he 
falls into a snare, he is frightened so greatly and so 
long that he may be killed without defending him- 
self, or taken captive without resistance. One can 
put a collar on him, chain him, muzzle him, and 
afterwards lead him wherever he chooses, without 
his daring to show the least sign of anger or even of 
discontent. The wolf has very good senses, — eyes, 
ears, and especially smell. He often scents further 
than he can see. The odor of carnage attracts him 
more than a league; he scents living animals from 
afar, and even chases them a long time before he 
brings them within sight. . . . 



THE WOLF. IO i 



" I have brought up and fed several at home. 
While they are young, that is to say, in their first 
and second years, they are tolerably docile, and even 
fawning, and if they are well fed they will not attack 
poultry nor other animals. But at eighteen months 
or two years, they return to their natural disposition, 
and must be chained to prevent their running away 
and doing mischief. I had one which, brought up 
in entire liberty in the poultry-yard with the hens 
for eighteen or nineteen months, had never attacked 
them ; but, for a first trial, he killed them all in one 
night, without eating any ; another, which, having 
broken his chain at about the age of two years, ran 
away after having killed a dog with which it was 
familiar." 

With really sagacious discrimination of evil from 
good, if also with some extravagance, Buffon sums 
up the character of the wolf thus : — 

" There is nothing good in this animal but his 
skin ; of this are made coarse furs which are warm 
and durable. His flesh is so bad that it repels all 
animals. Only a wolf will voluntarily eat wolf. . . . 
Disagreeable in every respect, with mean air, savage 
look, frightful voice, insupportable odor, perverse 
nature, ferocious manners, he is odious ; noxious 
while living, useless after death." 



102 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

In the " Bible Animals/' Mr. Wood gives some 
additional particulars of interest : — 

" Individually, the wolf is rather a timid animal. 
It will avoid a man rather than meet him. It pre- 
fers to steal upon its prey, and take it unawares, 
rather than to seize it openly and boldly. It is ever 
suspicious of treachery, and is always imagining 
that a trap is laid for it. Even the shallow device 
of a few yards of rope trailing from any object, or a 
strip of cloth fluttering in the breeze, is quite suffi- 
cient to keep the wolf at bay for a considerable time. 
This feet is well known to hunters, who are accus- 
tomed to secure the body of a slain deer by simply 
tying a strip of cloth to its horn. If taken in a 
trap of any kind, or even if it fancies itself in an 
inclosure from which it can find no egress, it loses 
all courage, and will submit to be killed without 
offering the least resistance. It will occasionally 
endeavor to effect its escape by feigning death, and 
has more than once been known to succeed in this 
device. 

"But, collectively, the wolf is one of the most 
dangerous animals that can be found. Herding 
together in droves, when pressed by hunger, the 
wolves will openly hunt prey, performing this task 
as perfectly as a pack of trained hounds. Full of 



THE WOLF. I0 3 



wiles themselves, they are craftily wise in antici- 
pating the wiles of the animals which they pursue ; 
and, even in full chase, while the body of the pack 
is following on the footsteps of the flying animal, 
one or two are detached on the flanks, so as to cut 
it off if it should attempt to escape by doubling on 
its pursuers. 

" There is no animal which a herd of wolves will 
not attack, and very few which they will not ulti- 
mately secure. Strength avails nothing against the 
numbers of these savage foes, which give no moment 
of rest, but incessantly assail their antagonist, dash- 
ing by instinct at those parts of the body which 
can be least protected, and lacerating with their 
peculiar short, snapping bite. Should several of 
their number be killed or disabled, it makes no dif- 
ference to the wolves, except that a minute or two 
are wasted .in devouring their slain or wounded 
brethren, and they only return to the attack the 
more excited by the taste of *blood. Swiftness of 
foot avails nothing against the tireless perseverance 
of the wolves, who press on in their peculiar, long, 
slinging gallop, and in the end are sure to tire out 
the swifter-footed but less enduring animal that 
flees before them. The stately buffalo is conquered 
by the ceaseless assaults of the wolves ; the bear 
has been forced to succumb to them, and the fleet- 



104 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

footed stag finds his swift limbs powerless to escape 
the pursuing band, and his branching horns unable 
to resist their furious onset when once they over- 
take him." 

Who are spiritually wolves the Lord Himself 
shows quite plainly in the words, " Beware of false 
prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but 
inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know 
them by their fruits." (Matt. vii. 15, 16.) That is, 
they are those who, in regard to things of the 
Church, teach not the ways of the Lord and of 
good life, but doctrines that make people depend 
upon them, and contribute to their greatness. 
Swedenborg says of them : — 

" They are those who teach falsities as if they 
were truths, and who in appearance live morally, 
but who, when they are left to themselves, think 
of nothing but themselves and the world, and study 
to deprive others of their truths." l 

For all genuine truths of religion lead to the 
Lord ; but falsities are invented to lead to men 

1 A. E. 195. 



THE WOLF. IoS 



and to excuse evil. Therefore those in the 
churches who devise laws and doctrines which 
they declare to be necessary to salvation, but 
which do not lead men to the Lord and the Word, 
but make them dependent on them, are ravening 
wolves. 1 The ecclesiastical history of the papal 
hierarchy, and especially of the Society of Jesuits, 
which has been its chief instrument of persecution 
and oppression, bears on every page accounts of 
the wiles and cruelties of spiritual wolves, usually 
wearing in their approaches the raiment of sheep. 
The perseverance and persistence of their attacks 
on those who had property or power, their combi- 
nations and mutual support in their attacks, the 
relentlessness and destructive fury with which 
they turn upon one of their own order who fails 
to support them, are as freely portrayed in the 
history of that Church government as in the 
natural history of wolves themselves. 

Wolfishness appears in the history of other 
branches of the. Church, though less conspicu- 



5* 



i L. J. 58, 59. 



106 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

ously ; it is not uncommon also in secular affairs, 
especially in military or business combinations for 
the purpose of plunder. It is a selfishness that is 
greedy of every kind of advantage, especially from 
those who are trustful and unsuspecting. Sly and 
treacherous itself, it suspects treachery every- 
where. It combines with others only in pursuing 
some common advantage ; and is as ready to 
profit by their downfall as by that of their prey. 

In the Word wolves are generally mentioned as 
the special enemies of sheep and lambs, in which 
sense they represent those leaders of the Church 
who turn to themselves, for their own advantage, 
the innocent dependent affections that belong to 
the Lord alone. 

In the prophecies of the establishment of the 
Lord's kingdom, it is said, " The wolf shall dwell 
with the lamb/' (Isa. xi. 6.) " The wolf and the 
lamb shall feed together." (Isa. lxv. 25.) By which 
is not meant that wolves will change their nature 
either naturally or spiritually ; but that the pres- 
ence of the Lord will be so strongly felt that there 



THE WOLF. 



107 



will be no power to turn away from Him those who 
love Him. 1 

At the time of the Lord's teaching, the leaders 
of the Jewish Church, Scribes and Pharisees, 
hypocrites, devouring widows' houses, and for a 
pretence making long prayers, had turned all 
things of their religion to their own selfish service, 
as has since been done in Christian Rome. The 
Lord, therefore, said to the apostles whom He 
sent forth, " Behold, I send you forth as lambs 
among wolves." (Luke x. 3.) He also likened 
those who taught the truth only when it conduced 
to their worldly prosperity, forsaking their charge 
or their truthful teaching at the menace of selfish 
leaders, to " hirelings," who flee when they see the 
wolf coming. 

The Lord was the good Shepherd, and gave His 
life for the sheep. He fearlessly taught the truth 
which led the people away from their former 
leaders to the Divine Spirit in Himself. The 
Pharisees declared that He cast out devils by 



1 A. E. 780. 



108 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

Beelzebub. To them He was only a fiercer wolf 
than themselves. Because of this appearance of 
the Lord and of those who teach from Him in 
resisting the selfishness of wolfish men, in the 
prophetic blessing which Jacob pronounced upon 
his sons, he said of Benjamin, who represents 
such explanation of spiritual truth as leads to 
an interior knowledge of the Lord, " Benjamin 
shall ravin as a wolf ; in the morning he shall 
devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the 
spoil." (Gen. xlix. 27.) l 

1 A. C. 6441. 



THE LEOPARD. 



109 



o 



THE LEOPARD. 

F the leopard we read in the "Bible Ani- 
mals " : — 



" Its color is tawny, variegated with rich black 
spots, and it is a fierce and voracious animal, 
almost equally dreaded by man and beast. . . . 

" To deer and antelopes it is a terrible enemy ; 
and, in spite of their active limbs, seldom fails in 
obtaining its prey. Swift as is the leopard, and 
wonderful its spring, it has not the enduring speed 
of the deer or antelope. . . . Instinctively knowing 
its inferiority in the race, the leopard supplies by 
cunning the want of enduring speed. 

" It conceals itself in some spot whence it can see 
far around without being seen, and thence surveys 
the country. A tree is the usual spot selected for 
this purpose, and the leopard, after climbing the 
trunk by means of its curved talons, settles itself in 
the fork of the branches, so that its body is hidden 
by the boughs, and only its head is shown between 
them. With such scrupulous care does it conceal 
itself, that none but a practised hunter can' discover 



no CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

it, while any one who is unaccustomed to the woods 
cannot see the animal even when the tree is pointed 
out to him. 

" As soon as the leopard sees the deer feeding at 
a distance, he slips down the tree, and stealthily 
glides off in their direction. He has many difficul- 
ties to overcome, because the deer are among the 
most watchful of animals, and if the leopard were 
to approach to the windward, they would scent him 
while he was yet a mile away from them. If he 
were to show himself but for one moment in the 
open ground, he would be seen, and if he were but 
to shake a branch or snap a dry twig, he would be 
heard. So he is obliged to approach them against 
the wind, to keep himself under cover, and yet to 
glide so carefully along that the heavy foliage of 
the underwood shall not be shaken, and the dry 
sticks and leaves, which strew the ground, shall not 
be broken. He has also to escape the observation 
of certain birds and beasts which inhabit the woods, 
and which would certainly set up their alarm-cry as 
soon as they saw him, and so give warning to the 
wary deer, which can perfectly understand a cry 
of alarm, from whatever animal it may happen to 
proceed. 

" Still, he proceeds steadily on his course, gliding 
from one covert to another, and often expending 



THE LEOPARD. 1ZI 



several hours before he can proceed for a mile. By- 
degrees he contrives to come tolerably close to 
them, and generally manages to conceal himself in 
some spot towards which the deer are gradually 
feeding their way. As soon as they are near enough 
he collects himself for a spring, just as a cat does 
when she leaps on a bird, and dashes towards the 
deer in a series of mighty bounds. For a moment 
or two they are startled and paralyzed with fear at 
the sudden appearance of their enemy, and thus 
give him time to get among them. Singling out 
some particular animal, he leaps upon it, strikes it 
down with one blow of his paw, and then, couching 
on the fallen animal, he tears open its throat, and 
laps the flowing blood. . . . 

"As an instance of the cunning which seems 
innate in the leopard, I may mention that whenever 
it takes up its abode near a village, it does not 
meddle with the flocks and herds of its neighbors, 
but prefers to go to some other village at a distance 
for food, thus remaining unsuspected almost at the 
very doors of the houses. 

" In general, it does not willingly attack mankind, 
and at all events seems rather to fear the presence 
of a full-grown man. But when wounded or irri- 
tated, all sense of fear is lost in an overpowering 
rush of fury, and it then becomes as terrible a foe 



H2 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

as the lion himself. It is not so large nor so strong, 
but it is more agile and quicker in its movements ; 
and when it is seized with one of these paroxysms 
of anger, the eye can scarcely follow it as it darts 
here and there, striking with lightning rapidity, and 
dashing at any foe within reach. Its whole shape 
seems to be transformed, and absolutely to swell 
with anger ; its eyes flash with fiery lustre, its ears 
are thrown back on the head, and it continually 
utters alternate snarls and yells of rage. It is hardly 
possible to recognize the graceful, lithe, glossy 
creature, whose walk is so noiseless, and whose 
every movement is so easy, in the furious, passion- 
swollen animal that flies at every foe with blind 
fury, and pours out sounds so fierce and menacing 
that few men, however well armed, will care to 
face it. 

" As is the case with most of the cat tribe, the 
leopard is an excellent climber, and can ascend 
trees and traverse their boughs without the least 
difficulty. It is so fond of trees, that it is seldom 
to be seen except in a well-wooded district. Its 
favorite residence is a forest where there is plenty 
of underwood, at least six or seven feet in height, 
among which trees are sparingly interspersed. 
When crouched in this cover it is practically invis- 
ible, even though its body may be within arm's 



THE LEOPARD. 113 



length of a passenger. The spotted body harmo- 
nizes so perfectly with the broken lights and deep 
shadows of the foliage, that even a practised hunter 
will not enter a covert in search of a leopard unless 
he is accompanied by dogs. The instinct which 
teaches the leopard to choose such localities is truly 
wonderful, and may be compared with that of the 
tiger, which cares little for underwood, but haunts 
the grass jungles, where the long, narrow blades 
harmonize with the stripes which decorate its 
body." 

In regard to the passage, " The wolf shall dwell 

with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with 

the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the 

fatling together, and a little child shall lead them " 

(Isa. xi. 6), Mr. Wood remarks: — 

" Herein the Prophet speaks as from accurate 
knowledge of the habits of the three predaceous 
animals. The wolf, as a rule, devastates the sheep- 
folds ; the leopard will steal upon and carry off the 
straggling goat or kid, because it can follow them 
upon the precipices where no wolf would dare to 
tread ; while the lion, being the strongest and most 
daring of the three, attacks the herds, and carries 
away to its lair the oxen which neither leopard nor 
wolf could move." 

H 



n 4 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

One other observation by Captain Drayson is 
worthy to be quoted : in speaking of a leopard 
that had been caught in a trap, he says : — 

" I visited him the morning after his capture, 
and was received with the most villanous grins and 
looks. He could not endure being stared at, and 
tried every plan to hide his eyes so that he need 
not see his persecutor. When every other plan 
failed, he would pretend to be looking at some dis- 
tant object, as though he did not notice his enemy 
close to him. When I gazed steadily at him, he 
could not keep up this acting for longer than a 
minute, when he would suddenly turn and rush at 
me, until he dashed himself against the bars, and 
found that he was powerless to revenge himself." x 

The fierce lust of appropriating to one's self, 
which is thus represented, does not obtain its ends 
by vehement strength which crushes opposition, 
like a spiritual lion, nor by open, clumsy, forcible 
literalness, like a bear, nor yet by combined attack, 
as does the wolf ; but by deceitful appearances and 
sudden attack of quick reasonings. 

The leopard loves to see, but not to be seen. 

1 Wood's Nat. Hist. 



THE LEOPARD. 



IJ 5 



He wishes to appear to be only the natural lights 
and shadows of the forest, and not an animal at 
all, till its prey is within certain reach. By the 
mingled play of light and shadow, the beauty of 
the light appears by contrast ; and so, in the mind, 
the beauty of spiritual light appears by contrast 
with obscurity. But the black spots which the 
leopard scatters in his sunshine are not the chance 
obscurities of ignorance, but maliciously interspersed' 
falsities, which yet pass with its victims for mere 
obscurity, — for things not well explained ancl dis- 
tinctly seen, but still innocent, — they are also 
made inconspicuous by the brightness of the truth 
connected with it. It is the purpose of the leopard 
that^o animal should appear to be under the 
spotted skin, that is, spiritually, that not a trace 
of evil desire should be suspected under those 
falsities, until its end is gained. Nothing could 
enrage it more than to be distinctly seen. 

That such deceivers appear in society we know. 
In regard to their work in the Church, Swedenborg 
says : — 



n6 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

"A leopard signifies reasonings which are discord- 
ant, and yet appear to be true, because a leopard is 
distinguished by its skin being variegated with spots, 
from which variegation it appears not unbeautiful ; 
but whereas it is a fierce and insidious animal, and 
above all others swift to seize its prey, and whereas 
they also are such who are skilful in reasoning 
expertly to confirm the dogma concerning the 
separation of faith from good works, and this by 
reasonings from the natural man, which, notwith- 
standing their discordance with truths, they make 
to appear as if they cohered therewith, therefore 
'the Beast' [which signified such reasonings] ap- 
peared as to its body like a leopard. . . . But this 
shall be illustrated by an example : Who may not 
be brought to believe that faith alone is the one 
only means of salvation, when it is grounded in the 
argument that man cannot of himself do good which 
is good in itself ? for it appears to every one at 
first sight as a necessary consequence, and thus 
as cohering with truth ; and in this case it is not 
perceived to be reasoning from the natural man 
confirming the separation of faith from good works 
[and really springing from the lust of doing evil], 
while the person who is persuaded by this reasoning 
begins to think that he has no need to attend to his 
life, because he has faith." x 

1 A. E. 780. 



THE LEOPARD. 



117 



Such falsities appearing as truth in obscurity, 
are the means of deception to such lusts, and they 
can no more give them up than a leopard can 
change his spots ; which is meant by the words, 
" Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard 
his spots ? then may ye also do good who have 
been taught to do evil." (Jer. xiii. 23.) 

The multiplication and destructiveness of such 
deceitful lusts at the end of the Church is thus 
described : " The lion out of the forest has smitten 
the great ones of Jerusalem, the wolf of the plains 
shall devastate them ; the leopard is watching 
against their cities ; every one who goes out shall 
be torn in pieces." (Jer. v. 6.) 

And, on the other hand, the perfect safety of 
innocent desire for truth, in the light of the Lord's 
Presence, at His Coming, is signified by " The 
leopard shall lie down with the kid." (Isa. xi. 6.) 1 

1 See also A. R. 572. C. L. 78, 79. 



THE DOG. 



" HTHE dogs of Oriental towns are so unlike their 
-*■ more fortunate European relatives, that they 
can hardly be recognized as belonging to the same 
species. In those lands the traveller finds that there 
is none of the wonderful variety which so distin- 
guishes the dog of Europe. . . . 

" As he traverses the streets, he finds that all the 
dogs are alike, and that all are gaunt, hungry, half- 
starved, savage, and cowardly, more like wolves 
than dogs, and quite as ready as wolves to attack 
when they fancy they can do so with safety. They 
prowl about the streets in great numbers, living, as 
they best can, on any scraps of food that they may 
happen to find. They have no particular masters, 
and no particular homes. Charitable persons will 
sometimes feed them, but will never. make compan- 
ions of them, feeling that the very (?ontact of a dog 
would be a pollution. They are certainly useful 
animals, because they act as scavengers, and will 
eat almost any animal substance that comes in their 
way." 1 

1 Bible Animals. 



THE DOG. 



119 



The author of " A Month in Constantinople " 
thus describes his first night: — 

" The whole city rang with one vast riot. Down 
below me, at Tophane — over about Stamboul — 
far away at Scutari — the whole sixty thousand dogs 
that are said to overrun Constantinople appeared 
engaged in the most active extermination of each 
other, without a moment's cessation. The yelping, 
howling, barking, growling, and snarling were all 
merged into one uniform and continuous even 
sound, as the noise of frogs becomes when heard at 
a distance. For hours there was no lull. I went 
to sleep, and woke again, and still, with my windows 
open, I heard the same tumult going on ; nor was 
it until daybreak that any thing like tranquillity 
was restored. ,, 

Yet several writers agree that these savage curs 
are still dogs in that essential characteristic, — 
the desire to attach themselves to a master. Mr. 
Tristram encamped, with his party, outside the 
walls of Jerusalem, near a Turkish guard-house. 

"So near the soldiers," he writes, "we could sleep 
in security, and had no occasion to be on the watch 
against pilferers during the daytime. Indeed, the 



120 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

guard-house provided us unasked with an invaluable 
and vigilant sentry, who was never relieved, nor 
ever quitted the post of duty. The poor Turkish 
conscript, like every other soldier in the world, is 
fond of pets, and in front of the grim turret that 
served for a guard-house was a collection of old 
orange-boxes and crates, thickly peopled by a gar- 
rison of dogs of low degree, whose attachment to 
the spot was certainly not purchased by the loaves 
and fishes which fell to their lot. One of the party 
must indeed have had hard times, for she had 
a family of no less than five dependent on her 
exertions and on the superfluities of the sentries' 
mess. With a sagacity almost more than canine, 
the poor gaunt creature had scarcely seen our tents 
pitched before she came over with all her litter, 
and deposited them in front of our tent. At once 
she scanned the features of every member of our 
encampment, and introduced herself to our notice. 
During the week of our stay, she never quitted 
her post, nor attempted any depredations on the 
kitchen-tent, which might have led to her banish- 
ment. Night and day she proved a faithful and 
vigilant sentry, permitting no stranger, human or 
canine, European or Oriental, to approach the 
tents without permission, but keeping on the most 
familiar terms with ourselves and our servants. 



THE DOG. I2 i 



On the morning of our departure, no sooner had 
she seen our camp struck than she conveyed her 
puppies back to their old quarters in the orange- 
box, and no entreaties or bribes could induce her 
to accompany us. On three subsequent visits to 
Jerusalem, this same dog acted in a similar way, 
though no longer embarrassed by family cares, 
and would on no account permit any strange dog, 
nor even her companions at the guard-house, to 
approach within the tent-ropes/' 1 

It would be easy to fill volumes with anecdotes 
of the traits of dogs. There are innumerable 
accounts of the zeal and sagacity of Newfoundland 
dogs in rescuing lives from the water ; of a similar 
instinct in the dogs of St. Bernard for finding 
and protecting travellers lost in the snow; of the 
peculiar ability and faithfulness displayed by 
shepherd dogs in guiding and protecting the 
sheep; of drovers' dogs which will conduct their 
flock or herd long distances alone, and will even 
drive them through other flocks or herds without 
allowing an individual to stray, or a single stranger 



1 "Land of Israel," pp. 175, 176. 



I2 2 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE, 

to mingle with their own ; 1 and not a few instances 
are recorded of dogs whose attachment to their 
masters was so great that when these died, the 
dogs also refused the means of life. It is super- 
fluous to describe at great length qualities that 
are so well known to all; it only remains for us 
to generalize them, and point out the essential 
characteristics in them all. 

Mr. Wood's observations on this point are of 
interest. He says : — 

" The leading characteristic of a dog's nature is 
that he must have a master, or at all events a mis- 
tress ; and just in proportion as he is free from 
human control, does he become less dog-like and 
more wolf-like. In fact, familiar intercourse with 
mankind is an essential part of a dogs true char- 
acter, and the animal seems to be so well aware of 
this fact, that he will always contrive to find a 
master of some sort, and will endure a life of cruel 
treatment at the hands of a brutal owner rather than 
have no master at all." 2 



1 Nat. Hist. 2 Bible Animals. 



THE DOG. 



I2 3 



Hamerton, also, with some facetiousness and 
extravagance, but with very clear insight into 
natural character, says : — 

" Thousands of dogs, whole generations of them, 
have known man in no other character than that of 
a merciless commander, punishing the slightest error 
without pity, yet bestowing no reward. There are 
countries where the dogs are never fed, where they 
are left to pick up a bare existence amongst the 
vilest refuge, and where they walk like gaunt images 
of famine, living skeletons, gnawing dry sticks in 
the wintry moonlight, doing Nature's scavenger work 
like rats. Yet iir every one of these miserable creat- 
ures beats the noble canine heart, — that heart whose 
depths of devotion have never yet been sounded to 
the bottom ; that heart which forgets all our cruelty, 
but not the smallest evidence of our kindness. If 
these poor animals had not been made to love us, 
what excellent reasons they would have had for 
hating us ! Their love has not been developed by 
care and culture, like the nourishing ears of wheat ; 
but it rises like warm, natural springs, where man 
has done nothing either to obtain them or to deserve 
them. ... 

" We know ourselves to be such lamentably im- 
perfect characters, that we long for an affection 



124 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



altogether ignorant of our faults. Heaven has ac- 
corded this to us in the uncritical canine attachment. 
Women love in us their own exalted ideals, and to 
live up to the ideal standard is sometimes rather 
more than we are altogether able to manage ; chil- 
dren in their teens find out how clumsy and ignorant 
we are, and do not quite unreservedly respect us ; but 
our dogs adore us without a suspicion of our short- 
comings." 1 

" It is said that every dog is an aristocrat, because 
rich men's dogs cannot endure beggars and their 
rags, and are civil only to well-dressed visitors. But 
the truth is that, from sympathy for his master, the 
dog always sees humanity very much from his mas- 
ter's point of view. The poor man's clog does not 
dislike the poor. I may go much farther than this, 
and venture to assert that a dog who has lived with 
you for years will make the same distinction between 
your visitors that you make yourself inwardly, not- 
withstanding the apparent uniformity of your out- 
ward politeness. My dog is very civil to people I 
like, but he is savage to those I dislike, whatever 
the tailor may have done to lend them external 
charms." 2 

Whatever we may think of the nobleness of the 
character thus described, there is no doubting the 

1 Chapters on Animals. 2 Ibid. 



THE DOG. 



125 



truth that the dog is an embodiment of personal 
affection, undiscriminating, devoted. There is, in- 
deed, a difference in the quality of dogs ; some of 
them learn good things easily, and are reluctant 
to do harm ; and others can with difficulty be 
restrained from cruelty. But where they attach 
themselves they worship good and evil indiffer- 
ently ; and all love wanton uncleanness. The 
affection of which they are representatives loves 
the faults with the virtues, often with a special 
fondness for selfish peculiarities of thought and 
temper. It is an affection which makes one 
complacent with himself as he is, but is not at 
all encouraging to improvement. 

In the Scriptures dogs are usually spoken of as 
vile ; but in their best sense are used as repre- 
sentatives of kindly, natural affection, which is 
indiscriminate because ignorant of truth, yet 
sometimes is desirous of instruction. The dogs 
that licked the sores of Lazarus, lying at the 
rich man's gate, have such a meaning. Sweden- 



l 2 6 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

borg interprets the rich man as meaning the 
learned among the Jews, who were rich in knowl- 
edge of the Word ; the poor man, as the simple 
among them who looked up to the learned for 
instruction, as Lazarus desired to be fed with the 
crumbs which fell from the rich man's table ; and 
the dogs doing their best in their poor way to help 
him, denote those out of the church who had more 
kindliness than those within it, though they did 
not know good from evil. 1 

Also, when the Syrophenician woman besought 
the Lord to cast out the devil from her daughter, 
He replied, " It is not meet to take the children's 
bread and cast it to dogs ;" to which she answered, 
in her humility, " Truth, Lord ; yet the dogs eat 
of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table" 
(Matt, xv.), thus turning the representative to its 
good sense, by acknowledging that they were in 
evil, but expressing a desire to be helped and 
instructed. 2 Likewise, in a sense not bad, Swe- 
denborg says that dogs signify " the lowest in the 

1 A. C. 9231. 2 See also A. E. 455. 



THE DOG. 12 j 



Church, who prate much of such things as are of 
the Church, but understand little ; " x in which 
sense it seems to be used in the passage, "That 
thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thine 
enemies, and the tongue of thy dogs in the same." 
(Psa. lxviii. 24.) Such persons may be very 
faithful to the things they have been taught, 
very watchful and suspicious of every thing that 
does not exactly agree with it, even of familiar 
things dressed in different clothes. 2 

Ignoble dogs, because of their greediness and 
quarrelsomeness, and their unclean and wanton 
ways, represent those whose personal attachment 
is simply for the sake of indulgence of appetite 
and for sensual enjoyment. Of these Swedenborg 
says : — 

" By dogs in general are signified those who are 
in all kinds of lusts and indulge them, particularly 
they who are in pleasures merely corporeal, espe- 
cially the pleasures of eating and drinking, in which 
alone they take delight." 3 

1 7784. 2 That there are good dogs, see S. D. 4853. 

8 A. R. 952. 



128 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

In this sense it is said, " Give not that which is 
holy unto the dogs ; " for holy things ought not to 
be used for self-indulgence. And in the Revelation 
we read, in the same meaning, " Without are dogs 
and sorcerers and whoremongers." (Rev. xxii. 15.) 
From such appetites readily springs the desire to 
destroy the purer truth which restrains them ; 
and such desire is meant by dogs in the passage, 
" They compassed me about like dogs ; deliver my 
darling from the power of the dog." (Ps. xxii. 
17, 21.) 



THE FOX AND THE JACKAL. 



'THHE Hebrew word used in the Bible for fox 
-*- " undoubtedly includes the jackal as well. 
Indeed, in most of the passages where it occurs, 
the jackal, rather than the fox, is intended. . . . 
The two animals are commonly confounded, or 
spoken of together, by the natives of Syria, though 
they are perfectly aware of their distinctness. . . . 

" The character and habits of the eastern fox no 
way differ from those so well known in other coun- 
tries ; but, from necessity probably, they are less 
exclusively carnivorous than in England. . . . The 
fondness of the fox for grapes is well known in the 
East ; but not less so that of the jackal, which, going 
in packs, often commits great devastation in the 
vineyards. . . . One great difference between the 
jackal and the fox is, that the former hunts in packs, 
while the latter prowls singly for his prey, which he 
takes by stratagem." * 

l Tristram, in " Nat. Hist, of the Bible." 
6* i 



130 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



The crafty, pilfering, cruel nature of the fox is 
made familiar by a thousand anecdotes to be found 
in every library. Mr. Wood gives the following 
account of his odor: — 

" A very powerful scent is poured forth from the 
fox in consequence of some glands which are placed 
near the root of the tail, and furnish the odorous 
secretion. ... It is by this scent that the hounds 
are able to follow the footsteps of a flying fox, and 
to run it down by their superior speed and endur- 
ance. The fox, indeed, seems to be aware that its 
pursuers are guided in their chase by this odor, and 
puts in practice every expedient that its fertile brain 
can produce in order to break the continuity of the 
scent, or to overpower it by the presence of other 
odors, which are more powerful, though not more 
agreeable. A hunted fox will make the most ex- 
traordinary leaps in order to break the line of scent, 
and throw the hounds on a false track. It will run 
for a considerable distance in a straight line, return 
upon its own track, and then make a powerful spring 
to one side, so as to induce the dogs to run forward 
while it quietly steals away. It will take every op- 
portunity of perfuming, or rather of scenting, itself 
with any odorous substance with which it can meet, 
in the hope of making the hounds believe that they 



THE FOX AND THE JACKAL. 131 

have mistaken their quarry. In fine, there are a 
thousand wiles which this crafty animal employs, 
and which are related by every one who has watched 
a fox or hunted it." l 

"The jackal is an essentially nocturnal and gre- 
garious animal. During the whole of the day the 
jackals lie concealed in their holes or hiding-places, 
which are usually cavities in the rocks, in tombs or 
among ruins. At nightfall they issue from their 
dens, and form themselves into packs, often consist- 
ing of several hundred individuals, and prowl about 
in search of food. Carrion of various kinds forms 
their chief subsistence, and they perform in the 
country much the same task as is fulfilled by the 
dogs in the cities. If any animal should be killed, 
or even severely wounded, the jackals are sure to 
find it out and to devour it before the daybreak." 2 

" The audacity of the jackal is as notable as his 
cunning. He will wait at the very door, biding his 
time patiently until it be opened and he may slink 
in through the aperture. Pigs, lambs, kids, and 
poultry fall victims to his insatiate appetite, and he 
has been known to steal the sleeping puppies from 
the side of their mother without detection. . . . 
Always ready to take advantage of every favorable 

* Nat. Hist. 2 Bible Animals. 



132 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



opportunity, the jackal is a sad parasite, and hangs 
upon the skirts of the larger carnivora as they roam 
the country for prey, in the hope of securing some 
share of the creatures which they destroy or wound. 
. . . When the tiger has killed some large animal, 
such as a buffalo, which he cannot consume at one 
time, the jackals collect round the carcass at a 
respectful distance, and wait patiently until the tiger 
moves off and they can venture to approach. As 
soon as the tiger moves away, the jackals rush from 
all directions, carousing upon the slaughtered buf- 
falo, and each anxious to eat as much as it can con- 
tain in the shortest time." l 

The common perception of men sees in the 
fox an emblem of craftiness, especially in getting 
possession of property. In Oriental stories, the 
jackal holds a similar place, as the representative 
of cunning and quick command of resources. In 
the fables of the East, animals are often put for 
human attributes, and are represented as speaking 
and carrying on the plot of the story with a sort of 
human intelligence. And among them the jackal 
is always the one to contrive plans, and .to extricate 
the party from difficulties. 

i Nat. Hist. 



THE FOX AND THE JACKAL, I33 

But foxes and jackals are night animals ; there- 
fore the intelligence which they represent does not 
love spiritual light, but the light of the world, which 
by itself is spiritual obscurity. They are also cruel 
beasts of prey ; which indicates that they represent 
selfish affections, which would prey upon others, 
and not do them good. They seem to -be embodi- 
ments of sly, selfish artifice in obtaining property. 
Human foxes love tricky ways, and chuckle over 
the proceeds of some sharp manoeuvre, loving them 
more than any amount of honest gains. 

The difference between the fox and the jackal 
seems to be that the jackal is more social, usually 
living in the neighborhood of others, and preying 
upon slain or wounded and feeble animals in 
company, while the fox is more solitary, more 
suspicious, more secret. 

The men who herd together for plunder, taking 
advantage of troubled times, of the conflicts of 
greater men, and of every one's weakness or 
necessity, are jackals ; but the slyer man, who lays 
his own plans in silence, trusts no one, and believes 
that he can outwit them all, is a fox. 



134 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



Mean thieves they all are ; and I think there is 
an odor of meanness about them which is readily 
perceived, and which they cannot get rid of ; but 
which the possessors try to obscure by an air of 
familiarity with worse wickedness which they 
assume to have met ; thus, as it were, covering 
their own. with a stronger scent. In every large 
community there must be many bone-strewn holes 
of foxes and jackals, which honest people seldom 
see until they fall into trouble. 

Speaking spiritually, this enjoyment of one's 
own tricky prudence, as a means of getting the 
better of others, is the opposite of a modest love 
of spiritual intelligence as a means of doing good. 1 
It is not pleasant to think of a perverted meaning 
to so good a fruit as grapes ; but as wine can be 
used to produce drunkenness, so can grapes as food 
for foxes. In their right use they correspond to 
the pleasant truth of neighborly life, such as true 
charity loves ; but foxes' grapes are a knowledge 

1 D. P. 311. T. C. R. 34. 



THE FOX AND THE JACKAL. 135 

of men and of the ways of life, as a means of 
getting selfish advantages. 

That pride in their own prudence such as foxes 
represent was common among the Jews, but that 
the truth of charity had no place in them, is meant 
by the Lord's saying, " Foxes have holes, . . . but 
the Son of man hath not where to lay His head." 

The Lord also called Herod a fox; no doubt 
describing with perfect truth his essential char- 
acter. 

The foxes with which Samson avenged himself 
upon the Philistines for taking his wife and giv- 
ing her to his companion were probably jackals. 
Three hundred of them Samson caught, "and 
took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a 
firebrand in the midst between two tails. And 
when he had set the brands on fire, he let them 
go into the standing corn of the Philistines, and 
burnt up both the shocks, and also the standing 
corn, with the vineyards and olives." Samson, 
as a Nazarite, represents the literal sense of the 
Word in power to expose and subdue evil. The 



136 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

Philistines represent those who allow themselves 
all pleasant evils of life, believing that they are 
saived by their faith. The Philistine bride of 
Samson represents a pretended affection for the 
genuine truth of the Word ; her being given to 
another signifies that their pretended affection for 
truth is, after all, only for the means of confirming 
their falsity and excusing their evil ; and Samson 
prophetically showed them that the natural con- 
sequence of their duplicity was the kindling of 
evil fires by which every good and true thing 
among them would be destroyed. 

In a like sense David says, "Those that seek 
my soul to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts 
of the earth. They shall fall by the sword: they 
shall be a portion for jackals " (Ps. lxiii. 9, 10) ; 
referring literally to the clearing of a battle-field 
by the jackals ; and spiritually to the utter de- 
struction of those who hate the Lord and His 
truth, by their own perverse and deceitful rea- 
sonings. 



SWINE. 



137 



SWINE. 

A N unwise effort, as it seems to me, is made 
by some indiscrimitate admirers of Nature, 
to lay all that is unclean in the habits of the hog 
to the interference of man. They say that in the 
wild state he is cleaner, and lives upon nuts and 
roots, and therefore is not repulsive. Still, the 
facts remain that, even wild, he does love to 
wallow in filth and mire, and that, as we know 
him, nothing that has a particle of nutriment in it 
is too filthy for him to eat. I will not dwell upon 
his disagreeable character, as, in a general way, 
it is sufficiently familiar to everybody. The 
domestic hog is a form of the greedy love of 
appropriating every good thing to one's self, and, 
secondarily, of defiling what cannot be appro- 
priated. It is not a love of delicacies, and of 
refined self-indulgence ; but of greedy, indiscrimi- 
nate appropriation and possession, for no possible 
use. 



138 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

The love may apply itself to food, or to riches, 
or to knowledge, or any thing else that is good : 
its essence is the same in all its different forms. 

Swedenborg says that swine correspond to sordid 
avarice. And he explains that " the lust of gain 
and avarice has in it that it not only wishes to 
possess the whole world, but also, for the sake of 
gain, to plunder every one, yea, to kill, and it 
likewise would kill for a trifle, if the laws did not 
prevent it. And, moreover, in the gold and silver 
which such a man possesses, he regards himself as 
the greatest in power, however otherwise he may 
appear to do in external form. Hence it is evident 
that in avarice there is not only the love of the 
world, but also self-love, and, indeed, the most 
filthy self-love. For, with the sordidly avaricious, 
elation of mind, or pride, is not so conspicuous 
outwardly, for this sometimes does not care about 
wealth for the sake of show ; neither is it that 
kind of self-love which usually is connected with 
pleasures ; for they have little concern about the 
body and its food and clothing ; but it is a love 



SWINE. I39 



altogether earthly, having nothing for its end but 
money, in which it believes itself, not in act but in 
ability, above all. Hence it may be evident that 
in avarice there is a love of self the lowest and 
the vilest of all ; wherefore in the other life the 
avaricious appear to themselves to be among 
swine ; and they are, beyond all others, contrary 
to all good whatever." * 

The love of wealth for the sake of power has 
been a not uncommon form of avarice among 
the Jews, who have made its greedy, cruel, selfish 
nature well known to all readers. Another form 
of their avarice will be mentioned hereafter. 
For the reason that swine correspond to their 
national evil," to eat swine's flesh was a form of 
transgression which their backsliding was very 
liable to take, and it is mentioned throughout the 
Bible as a not uncommon, though abominable, 
sin. 

The filth in which swine love to wallow, and to 
trample good things, indicates their secondary 



i A. C. 4751- 



i 4 o CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



correspondence with a lust of defiling goodness 
and truth. Therefore Swedenborg also says that 
swine correspond to " filthy loves such as are in 
the hells of adulterers." l 

1 A. E. 1044. 



THE BOAR. 



141 



THE BOAR. 

nr^HE wild boar is, in some respects, so different 
from his domesticated brother, that he re- 
quires separate attention. 

" Woods and reed-beds are always the habitations 
of the wild boar, . . . which seems to prefer the 
reed-bed to the wood, probably because it can find 
plenty of mud, in which it wallows, after the fashion 
of its kind. There is no doubt whatever that the 
1 Beast of the Reeds ' (Ps. lxviii. 30) is simply a 
poetical phrase for the wild boar. 

" If there should be any cultivated ground in the 
neighborhood, the boar is sure to sally out, and do 
enormous damage to the crops. It is perhaps more 
dreaded in the vineyards than in any other ground, 
as it not only devours the grapes, but tears down 
and destroys the vines, trampling them under foot, 
and destroying a hundred-fold as much as it eats. 
. . . We can well imagine the damage that would be 
done to a vineyard even by the domesticated swine, 
but the wild boar is infinitely more destructive. It 



i 4 2 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

is of very great size, often resembling a donkey 
rather than a boar, and is swift and active beyond 
conception. The wild boar is scarcely recognizable 
as the very near relation of the domestic species. 
It runs with such speed that a high-bred horse finds 
some difficulty in overtaking it, while an indifferent 
steed would be left hopelessly behind. Even on 
level ground the hunter has hard 'work to overtake 
it ; and if it can get upon broken or hilly ground, 
no horse can catch it. The wild boar can leap to a 
considerable distance, and can wheel and turn when 
at full speed, with an agility that makes it a singu- 
larly dangerous foe. Indeed, the inhabitants of 
countries where the wild boar flourishes would as 
soon face a lion as one of these animals, the stroke 
of whose razor-like tusks is made with lightning 
swiftness, and which is sufficient to rip up a horse, 
and cut a dog nearly asunder." l 

" When striking with these weapons, the boar does 
not seem to make any great exertion of strength, but 
gives a kind of wriggle with his snout as he passes 
his victim. In India, it is not uncommon for an 
infuriate wild boar to pursue some unfortunate na- 
tive, to overtake him as he flies, and, putting his 
snout between the poor man's legs, to cut right and 

* Bible Animals. 



THE BOAR. 



J 43 



left with an almost imperceptible effort, and to pass 
on his course, leaving the wounded man helpless on 
the ground. " 1 

The fleetness and nimbleness of the wild boar 
suggest much more active mental qualities than 
those of the domestic hog. His weapons of 
destruction, the tusks, by which he tears up vines 

and shrubs, and strips the bark from trees, are 
enormously developed ; and with them his love of 
destroying, which now becomes the most prominent 
characteristic ; though the greedy love of possession 
and the love of defilement are still there. 

He is a representative of a quick, vigorous mind, 
wholly sensual, which believes itself to know every 
thing that is worth knowing, and slashes right and 
left at all good things which it does not want to 
use. 

Such are especially those who stick in philo- 
sophical terms, from which they believe themselves 
to be intellectually all-powerful. They attack and 
tear in pieces the terms in which interior truth is 

1 Nat. Hist. 



I44 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



stated, without in the least comprehending the 
truth ; as boars tear the bark from the vines. 

Certain spirits who hated this philosophical 
destructiveness attacked Swedenborg because he 
also used some philosophical terms, such as subject 
and predicate, and likened him to a wild boar. 
He explained that he used the terms only as exact 
expressions of spiritual thought ; and continued : — 

" The abuse is that philosophers remain in terms, 
and dispute concerning them without coming to 
agreement. Hence all idea of the real thing per- 
ishes, and mans understanding is so limited that 
afterwards it knows nothing but terms. Therefore 
when they wish to comprehend things with their 
terms, they collect nothing but such terms, and thus 
obscure the real thing, so that they can understand 
nothing at all : thus they darken their natural light. 
For on this account an unlearned man has much 
more extensive ideas, and sees [more clearly] what 
is true, than a philosopher. Such a one remains 
in the mud like a pig. Such a pig was represented 
to me as a wild boar, and he becomes a wild beast in 
the woods ; for he wanders like a wild beast among 
truths, which he tears in pieces and destroys." 1 

i D. S. 1604. 



THE BOAR. 



145 



In the Psalms, the Church is described as to 
spiritual truth as a vine brought out of Egypt, and 
planted ; and of such spiritual enemies as have 
been described, it is said, " The boar out of the 
wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field 
doth devour it." (Fs. lxxx. 13.) 



146 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



MICE. 

PHE other form of Jewish avarice which has 
been referred to (under " Swine ") is that 
represented by' mice. 1 It is a love of pilfering and 
hoarding, not so much for the sake of greatness 
and power, as for the sake of an indolent and 
luxurious life. There is in it an utter want of 
trust in Providence, which is replaced by trust in 
one's own acquisitions. There is also an aversion 
to productive industry, and a disposition to beg 
and steal and hoard. I think we feel the same 
sort of shudder at the idea of petty thieves around 
as we do at mice and rats. 

This sort of avarice applies as well to knowledge 
as to property, and an idle love of reading for the 
sake of possessing much, is represented by mice. 2 

Also the love of sly indulgence of appetite, 

1 A. C. 938. 2 D . s. 385. 



MICE. 



147 



which we should be ashamed to have exposed ; 
and, again, the pilfering of affection from others 
by sly insinuations and flattery 1 are forms of the 
avarice represented by mice. 

Because this avarice is a common Jewish vice, 
therefore it is said of them, " They that sanctify 
themselves . . . eating swine's flesh and the abomi- 
nation and the mouse, shall be consumed together." 
(Isa. lxvi. 17.) 

When the Ark of the Testimony was taken by 
the Philistines, and carried down to their country, 
wherever it went it caused plagues of emerods and 
mice. The Philistines represent those who believe 
themselves saved by their faith, and freed from the 
obligation to attend to their lives. The presence 
of the Ark represents the power of the truth of the 
Word to show their real quality. And the mice are 
the sly habits of self-indulgence, thus exposed. 



1 D. S. vii. 4. 



i 4 8 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



FROGS. 

"PROGS are cold, slimy creatures, who, when 
they are young, live in the water, and 
resemble ugly, useless little fishes. As they 
mature they learn to breathe air, but still live 
mostly in the water, coming to the surface to 
breathe and croak. In early spring, which is their 
breeding season, they croak almost incessantly, 
and are vile. They correspond to affections which 
grow up in an atmosphere of merely natural 
thought, which they do not love for any useful 
purpose, and, when they mature, think about 
spiritual things only to deny and slander them. 
They deny the Divine Providence, they deny that 
there is a heaven or a hell, and talk croakingly 
about getting all the good you can out of life as it 
goes/' * 

It was one of the plagues of Egypt that their 

i A. C. 7352. 



FROGS. I49 



river " brought forth frogs upon their land and in 
the chambers of their kings." (Ps. cv. 30.) By 
those plagues were represented the evils that come 
upon those who are wholly natural ; and one of 
them is the swarming of such falsities as frogs 
represent. 

John saw " out of the mouth of the dragon, and 
out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the 
mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits 
like frogs." (Rev. xvi. 13.) The dragon, the beast, 
and the false prophet are they who teach the 
doctrine of faith alone. These talk merely nat- 
urally, denying spiritual truth ; not, indeed, the 
particulars mentioned above, but these, — that our 
Lord is God with us ; that heavenly life is to live 
from His good Love ; that He conquered the 
hells, and now holds them subdued for those and 
in those who hate evil, and look to Him to save 
them. These essential truths they deny, and rea- 
son discontentedly against them, from their love 
of being let alone in their natural pleasures. 



ISO 



CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



APES. 

"\ TIMICRY is the familiar characteristic of 
monkeys and apes, even to the great 
gorillas, of whom it is said that " they watch the 
actions of men, and imitate them as nearly as 
possible. Like the ivory hunters, they pick up 
the fallen tusks of elephants, but not knowing 
where to deposit them, they carry their burdens 
about until they themselves drop, and even die 
from fatigue." x Their very forms are burlesque 
imitations of human forms. 

"Monkey tricks" and mimicry are well-known 
human attributes, and the love of these is the 
monkey in us. 

In regard to spiritual things, there is a deeper 
kind of monkey character. Man becomes truly 
man, in the image and likeness of God, by learn- 
ing from God, and living what he learns. But 

* Nat. Hist. 



APES. i S i 



man is an ape, and no man, when he assumes 
the forms and the words of Christian worship in 
prayer and preaching and profession, but does not 
know the Lord in his heart nor love Him nor live 
from Him ; in which case he is only a grotesque, 
perverse counterfeit of a man. 1 

The apes which Solomon imported, with gold 
and silver, ivory and peacocks, were representatives 
of externals of worship, or of humanity, which 
with the Israelites were without internals. 2 

i A. R. 839. 2 a. E. 514. 



IS 2 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



SERPENTS. 

r I ^HE first characteristic of serpents is that their 
whole body is foot. It lies upon the ground, 
and is their instrument of progression. 

They throw themselves rapidly forward by coils 
of their body ; but they have also a remarkable 
power of gliding along without coils, and without 
any other perceptible means of locomotion. 

This movement is dependent on "the mobility 
of the ribs, which are pushed forward in succession, 
and drawn back again, so as to catch against any 
inequality of the ground. This power is increased 
by the structure of the scales. Those of the upper 
part of the body, which are not used for locomotion, 
are shaped something like the scales of a fish ; but 
those of the lower part of the body, which come in 
contact with the ground, are broad belts, each over- 
lapping the other, and each connected with one pair 
of ribs. When, therefore, the serpent pushes for- 
ward the ribs, the edges of the scaly belts will catch 



SERPENTS. 153 



against the slightest projection, and are able to 
give a very powerful impetus to the body. It is 
scarcely possible to drag a snake backwards over 
rough ground ; while on a smooth surface, such as 
glass, the serpent would be totally unable to pro- 
ceed." * 

This gliding motion is as if the animal were 
intent with his whole mind upon keeping out of 
sight, and attaining his ends without suspicion. 
It is both offensive and defensive. By means of it 
he creeps unheard and unsuspected close to the 
insects, reptiles, or other small creatures which are 
his food, and seizes his prey by a sudden dart of 
his tongue or head. And, on the other hand, when 
surprised by an intruder whom he fears, he glides 
away so noiselessly and with so little appearance 
of movement, that an unpractised eye will remain 
fixed upon the neighboring grass or sticks, and 
will only know that the snake is gone. 

Describing the manner of handling venomous 
snakes practised by Mr. Waterton, Mr. Wood 
says : — 



1 Bible Animals. 



7* 



I S4 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



" The nature of all serpents is rather peculiar. . . . 
They are extremely unwilling to move except when 
urged by the wants of nature, and will lie coiled up 
for many hours together when not pressed by hun- 
ger. Consequently, when touched, their feeling is 
evidently like that of a drowsy man, who only tries 
to shake off the object which may rouse him, and 
compose himself afresh to sleep. A quick and 
sudden movement would, however, alarm the reptile, 
which would strike in self-defence ; and, sluggish 
as are its general movements, its stroke is delivered 
with such lightning rapidity that it would be sure 
to inflict its fatal wound before it was seized. If, 
therefore, Mr. Waterton saw a serpent which he 
desired to catch, he would creep very quietly up to 
it, and with a gentle, slow movement place his 
fingers round its neck just behind the head. If it 
happened to be coiled up in such a manner that he 
could not get at its neck, he had only to touch it 
gently until it moved sufficiently for his purpose. 
When he had once placed his hand on the serpent 
it was in his power. He would then grasp it very 
lightly indeed, and raise it gently from the ground, 
trusting that the reptile would be more inclined to 
be carried quietly than to summon up sufficient 
energy to bite. Even if it were inclined to use its 



SERPENTS. 



*55 



fangs, it could not have done so as long as its cap- 
tor's fingers were round its neck." x 

Some charmers of serpents display snakes with 
their fangs extracted ; but others " handle with 
impunity the cobra or the cerastes with all its 
venomous apparatus in good order. The charmers 
are always provided with musical instruments, of 
which a sort of flute with a loud shrill sound is the 
one which is mostly used in the performances. 
Having ascertained from slight marks which their 
practised eyes easily discover, that a serpent is hid- 
den in some crevice, the charmer plays upon his 
flute, and in a short time the snake is sure to make 
its appearance. 

"As soon as it is fairly out, the man seizes it by 
the end of the tail, and holds it up in the air at 
arm's length. In this position it is helpless, having 
no leverage, and merely wriggles about in fruitless' 
struggles to escape. Having allowed it to exhaust 
its strength by its efforts, the man lowers it into a 
basket, where it is only too glad to find a refuge, 
and closes the lid. After awhile he raises the lid 
and begins to play the flute. The serpent tries to 
glide out of the basket ; but, as soon as it does so, 
the lid is shut down again, and in a very short time 
the reptile finds that escape is impossible, and, as 



1 Bible Animals. 



156 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

long as it hears the sound of the flute, only raises 
its head in the air, supporting itself on the lower 
part of its tail, and continues to wave its head from 
side to side. . . . The rapidity with which a cobra 
learns this lesson is extraordinary, the charmers 
being as willing to show their mastery over newly- 
caught serpents as over those which have been long 
in their possession. . . . The allusion to the ' deaf 
adder [probably cobra] that stoppeth her ear ; which 
will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charm- 
ing never so wisely ' (Ps. lviii. 4, 5), needs a little 
explanation. Some species of serpent are more 
susceptible to sound than others, the cobra being 
the most sensitive of all the tribe. Any of these 
which are comparatively insensible to the charmers 
efforts may be considered as ' deaf adders/ But 
there has been from time immemorial a belief in 
the East that some individual serpents are very 
obstinate and self-willed, refusing to hear the sound 
of the flute, or the magic song of the charmer, and 
pressing one ear into the dust, while they stop the 
other with the tail." 

After quoting various comments upon this belief, 
Mr. Wood adds : — 

" It may be as well to remark, . . . that snakes 
have no external ears, and that therefore the notion 



SERPENTS. i 57 



of the serpent stopping its ears is, zoologically, a 

simple absurdity." 

The asp of our English Bible is identified with 

tolerable certainty with the cobra. The adder, in 

the expression, " Dan shall be a serpent by the 

way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse's 

heels, so that his rider shall fall backward," seems 

to be the cerastes, or horned snake. Of this little 

snake Tristram writes : — 

" Its habit is usually to coil itself on the sand, 
where it basks in the impress of a camel's foot, and 
thence suddenly to dart out on any passing animal. 
So great is the terror which its sight inspires in 
horses, that I have known mine, when I was riding 
in the Sahara, suddenly start and rear, trembling 
and perspiring in every limb, and no persuasions 
would induce him to proceed. I was quite unable 
to account for his terror, until I noticed a cerastes 
coiled up in a depression two or three paces in front, 
with its basilisk eyes steadily fixed on us, and no 
doubt preparing for a spring, as the horse passed." x 

Swedenborg says : — 

" All beasts signify affections, . . . and serpents 
signify the affections of the sensual man, by reason 

1 " Nat. Hist, of the Bible." 



i 5 8 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

of their creeping on the belly upon the ground in 
like manner as the sensual principle of man ; for 
this is in the lowest place, and as it were creeps 
upon the ground under all other principles. . . . The 
evil . . . who are in the hells, are mostly sensual, 
and many of them subtle ; wherefore when they are 
viewed from the light of heaven, they appear" as 
serpents of various kinds, and hence it is that the 
devil is called a serpent/' l 

By sensual affection is not meant the power of 
perceiving through the senses, nor thoughts from 
such perception ; but the love of sensual pleasure, 
to which these perceptions and thoughts minister. 
The men of ancient days at first had interior 
perceptions of love and wisdom from heaven, and 
attended chiefly to these and to the pleasant things 
of the world as representatives of them. But after 
awhile they began to think of the pleasures of 
external sensations separate from spiritual per- 
ceptions, — they listened to the Serpent, who was 
more subtle than any wild beast of the field 
which the Lord God had made ; and, judging of 

i A. E. 581. 



SERPENTS. I59 



good and evil by his advice, they lost every thing 
heavenly. 

" In old time, they were called serpents/' Swe- 
denborg says, "who trusted to things of sense 
more than to things revealed." ] 



The poison of serpents is the subtle persuasion 
of the love of sensual pleasure, by which it torpifies 
our spiritual perceptions, and delivers us up to spir- 
itual death. The senses are not equally danger- 
ous in this way. The affections of sight and hearing 
sometimes beguile us ; the affections of taste and 
touch do so continually. And they always act like 
serpents. The affections for the pleasant things 
of these senses insinuate themselves so cautiously, 
and present such plausible appearances of use or 
necessity, that we do not perceive them at all till 
we have gone too far. Then, perhaps, we wake 
with a shock to find the serpent taking possession 
of us. By the poison of these serpents more than 
by any other causes the spirit of man is deadened, 

1 A. C. 196, also 195. 



jSo correspondences of the bible, 

closed to the perception of spiritual truth, and 
hardened to the delights of heavenly loves. And 
when these things of interior life are destroyed, 
the man is all serpent, — cold, sluggish, stupid, 
— keen and cruel only when some appetite is 
excited. 

The serpent in the way, biting the horse's heels 
so that his rider shall fall backward, denotes rea- 
sonings from appearances and externally pleasant 
things by which the understanding of spiritual 
truth is taken away. 1 

But the love of sensual pleasure is not always 
evil. In the earliest times it was simply an 
external delight subservient to and completing 
heavenly delights ; and so it becomes again as men 
are regenerated. To quote once more from Swe- 
denborg : — 

" Inasmuch as by serpents are signified sensual 
things, which are the ultimates of the natural man, 
and these are not evil except with those persons 

1 A. C. 6400. 



SERPENTS. 161 



who are evil : . . by . . . serpents not poisonous . . . 
are signified in the Word sensual things not evil, 
or, as applied to persons, sensual men not evil." l 
" By the serpent, among the most ancient people, 
who were celestial men, was signified circumspec- 
tion, and in like manner the sensual, by which they 
exercised circumspection lest they should be injured 
by evil ; which is evident from the words of the 
Lord to His disciples, ' Behold, I send you forth as 
sheep into the midst of wolves ; be ye therefore 
prudent as serpents, and harmless as doves.' (Matt. 
x. 1 6.) So also by the brazen serpent which was 
set up in the wilderness, by which was signified the 
sensual of the Lord, who alone is the celestial man, 
and alone is circumspect and provident for all ; 
wherefore all who looked upon it were preserved." 2 

The Lord glorified His whole human, even to 
the senses and the sensual affections. He made 
them divine in Him, and perfectly subservient to 
His love and wisdom. And He has power to 
subdue excited sensual affections in us. If we 
bring them at once to Him, they subside, and 
the spirit is healed. This is represented by the 

a A. E. 714. 2 A. C. 197. 

K 



j62 correspondences of the bible. 

elevation of the brazen serpent, and the healing 
of all whom the serpents had bitten, who looked 
upon it. 

The charming of serpents by music seems to 
represent the subjection of pleasures of sense to 
spiritual affections. "The deaf adder, that stoppeth 
her ear, which will not hearken to the voice of 
charmers charming never so wisely," is the per- 
sistent love of such pleasure, which will not attend 
to words of wisdom, or tones of spiritual affection. 1 
Possibly the serpents most easily charmed in this 
manner have relation to the sense of hearing, 
which may exert a most enervating influence upon 
the spirit, but may with comparative ease be made 
to serve noble affections. 

It would be an interesting inquiry whether there 
are also serpents charmed by bright colors, since 
the eye is even more readily made the servant of 
intelligence. 

In a good sense, the harmless serpents represent 
the watchfulness of the senses lest the body suffer 
injury. 

1 A. C. 195. 



SERPENTS. ^3 

In a deeper sense, the watchful caution and 
noiseless retreat of the harmless serpents image 
the useful circumspection which we ought to 
exercise in dealing with others, — as, for instance, 
in presenting truth to them, lest we subject the 
truth to abuse or misunderstanding, advancing our 
views cautiously, and, when we perceive that they 
will not be received, withdrawing them if possible 
without observation. The senses are then all on 
the watch for tones, looks, or touches which agree 
or disagree ; and so guide and protect our advance 
and retreat. This sensitiveness we call " tact." 



BIRDS. 



A DISTINGUISHING characteristic of birds 
is, that the arms — which in mammalia 
generally serve for support upon the ground or on 
trees, also for weapons of offence and defence, in 
man for work, and in all for expressing most 
effectively the power of the animal — are trans- 
formed into wings, the chief use of which is 
to support their possessor in the air, whence 
he commands an extensive view, and to bear 
him with extreme rapidity from place to place. 
Another peculiarity of birds is the sharpness of 
their sight, and the wonderful quickness with 
which it is accommodated to objects at various 
distances. 

Their other organs of sense are not remarkably 
developed. The touch cannot be delicate through 
a coat of feathers ; the tasting papillae of the 



BIRDS. ^5 



tongue are few ; the olfactory nerves are small in 
most birds ; and even the ears, though quick and 
delicate within certain limits, do not attain a high 
development, either externally or internally. The 
sensitive power of birds is concentrated in the 
eyes, which are very large, and marvellously quick 
to discern objects near or remote. 

The creature whose chief powers are those of 
rising into the air, of penetrating vision, and of 
rapid flight, is a representative of the human 
faculty of rising in thought out of the common 
states of life, of obtaining clear ideas of states 
quite remote, and entering into them with intel- 
lectual delight. 

It is a faculty unlike that represented by the 
beasts of burden, in that it does not attempt to 
introduce our affections, knowledge, and life into 
the states observed ; but merely to obtain a 
distinct idea of them, with, perhaps, some taste 
of their productions. After obtaining such an 
idea, we may make the effort to transport ourselves 
into the new state of life, which is comparatively 



j66 correspondences of the bible. 

a slow, toilsome process ; or we may desire to 
bring into our lives, as they are, some new element 
of which we have obtained an idea ; and this also 
is a process involving mental labor. This is a 
kind of work which birds do not do, except in the 
small degree which is represented by their carrying 
seeds and small fruits, and sometimes larger prey, 
to their nests. But good spiritual birds have a 
very exquisite pleasure in seeing in the light of 
heaven, and thinking in the air of heaven, cared 
for and blessed by the Lord. 

The feathers of such birds -represent what is 
good and beautiful in spiritual thought. For 
garments represent that which is right and 
becoming to him who is clothed. The wool of 
sheep represents the reverent and affectionate 
manners of those who are in love to the Lord 
and mutual love : the hair of goats represents the 
truths of charity expressed by those who are in 
neighborly love from principle. And the feath- 
ers of birds describe the grace and delight of 
thinking. 



BIRDS. 



167 



The wings of birds, by which they take hold 
of the air and climb, are the power of feeling 
the reality and the support of spiritual truth and 
heavenly influences. The influence of good spirits 
and angels is about every one, and a divine 
influence from the Lord. The mere presence of 
these does not raise the mind into the region of 
heavenly thought. But if one acknowledges their 
reality, and, trusting to their support, endeavors to 
think truly of heaven and of the Lord in heaven, 
he immediately begins to float. Therefore the 
experiences of the reality and supporting power 
of angels* thought and affection are the pinions 
of the wings. If these are extensive, and their 
conscious hold of such supporting influence is 
strong, the mind spreads its wings and soars in 
easy sweeps. If they are slight and weak, the 
mind is obliged constantly to reassure itself of 
the reality of spiritual things, and takes only 
short and labored flights. 

Under their wings birds gather their young 
for safety, saying in effect that tender affections 



1 68 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

for spiritual thought are justified and protected 
by the experience and power of others in spiritual 
thinking. Under their wings they protect their 
own heads as they sleep, shielding their lives 
by their knowledge and experience of heavenly 
influences. They are made as forms of trust 
in the protection of heaven ; even in the egg 
the birdlings grow with their heads under their 
wings. 

There is a remarkable difference between birds 
and the mammalia as to the mode of reproduction. 
The birds lay eggs containing all the materials 
from which the young are formed, and sit upon 
them and care for them, giving them closest 
attention until the development is complete. In 
mammalia the egg is retained by the mother, and 
grows gradually, with comparatively little attention, 
from the daily life of the mother, until the young 
are ready for separate life. The birds are forms 
of affection for thinking, and even their young 
immediately become objects of thought and ab- 
sorbing attention. The mammalia are forms of 



BIRDS. 



169 



affection for living ; and their young become 
similar forms not by thoughtful attention, but by 
being a part of their parents* living, till they are 
completely developed. 



170 



CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



EAGLES. 

HT*HE birds of prey, as they are commonly called, 
are divided into three families, — vultures, 
falcons (including eagles, hawks, and kites), and 
owls. 

" The vultures are distinguished by the shape of 
the beak, which is of moderate size, nearly straight 
above, curved suddenly and rounded at the tip, and 
without any ' teeth ' in the upper mandible. . . . 
In the greater number of species the head and upper 
part of the neck are nearly naked, and the eyes are 
unshaded by the feathery ridge which overhangs 
these organs in the eagles. As a general rule, the 
vultures feed on dead carrion, and are therefore 
most ^beneficial to the countries which they inhabit. 
When pressed by hunger, however, they will make 
inroads upon the flocks and herds." * 

The eagle family, like the vultures, seek their 
food by daylight, and are therefore grouped with 
them as the diurnal birds of prey. 

1 Wood's Nat. Hist. 



EA GLES. j ^ j 



"All the falconidae possess powerful hooked beaks, 
not running straight for some distance, and then 
suddenly curved, as in the vultures, but nearly always 
bent in a curve from the very base. The head and 
neck are covered with plumage, and above the eyes 
the feathers are so thick and projecting that they 
form a kind of roof or shade, under which the eye 
is situated and effectually sheltered from the bright 
rays of the noontide sun." 

" The whole of the falconidae are eminently de- 
structive birds, gaining their subsistence chiefly by 
the chase, seldom feeding on carrion except when 
pressed by hunger, or when the dead animal has 
only recently been killed. Herein they form a 
complete contrast to the vultures, whose usual food 
is putrefying carrion, and fresh meat the exception. 
Destructive though they may be, they are by no 
means cruel, neither do they inflict needless pain 
on the object of their pursuit. . . . Although they 
deprive many birds and beasts of life, they effect 
their purpose with a single blow, sweeping down 
upon the doomed creature with such lightning 
velocity, and striking it so fiercely with the death- 
dealing talons, that in the generality of instances 
the victim must be unconscious even of danger, 
and be suddenly killed while busily engaged in its 
ordinary pursuits, without suffering the terrors of 



i 7 2 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



anticipation, or even a single pang of bodily pain. 
. . . When the eagle perceives a bird on the wing, 
the mere shock caused by the stroke of the eagle's 
body is almost invariably sufficient to cause death ; 
and the bird, should it be a large one, such as a 
swan, for example, falls dead upon the earth without 
even a wound. Smaller birds are carried off in the 
talons of their pursuers, and are killed by the grip 
of their tremendous claws ; the eagle in no case 
making use of its beak for the purpose of killing its 
prey. If the bird carries off a lamb or a hare, it 
grasps the body firmly with its claws, and then, by 
a sudden exertion of its wonderful strength, drives 
the sharp talons deep into the vitals of its prey, and 
does not loosen its grasp until the breath of life has 
fled, and all movement has ceased/' 

" The eagles are all monogamous, keeping them- 
selves to a single mate, and living together in perfect 
harmony through their lives. Should, however, one 
of them die, or be killed, the survivor is not long 
left in a state of widowhood, but vanishes from the 
spot for a few days, and then returns with a new 
mate. ... It is a rather remarkable fact that, whereas 
the vultures feed their young by disgorging the food 
which they have taken into their crops, the eagles 
carry the prey to their nests, and there tear it to 
pieces, and feed the eaglets with the morsels." . 



EAGLES. 



173 



" A golden eagle had been captured in Scotland, 
and, being very tame, always accompanied the family 
to which it belonged in all their journeys. . . . Like 
other tame eagles, . . . she would persist in killing 
cats if they came within reach, although her ordinary 
food was fowls, rabbits, and similar articles of diet. 
On one occasion, a sickly, pining chicken . . . was 
given to the eagle. The royal bird, however, refused 
to eat it, but seemed to be struck with pity at its 
miserable state, and took it under her protection. 
She even made it sit under her wing, which she 
extended as a shield ; and once, when a man unkindly 
endeavored to take her protegee away, she attacked 
him fiercely, injuring his leg severely, and drove him 
fairly off her premises." 

" Owing to the expanse of the wings, and the 
great power of the muscles, the flight of this bird is 
peculiarly bold, striking, and graceful. It sweeps 
through the air in a succession of spiral curves, 
rising with every spire, and making no perceptible 
motion with its wings until it has attained an alti- 
tude at which it is hardly visible. From that post 
of vantage the eagle marks the ground below, and 
sweeps down with lightning rapidity upon bird or 
beast that may happen to take its fancy." 

Tristram quotes Sir H. Davy's account of a pair 

of golden eagles teaching their young to fly : — 



174 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



" I once saw a very interesting sight above the 
crags of Ben Nevis. Two parent eagles were 
teaching their offspring, two young birds, the ma- 
noeuvres of flight. They began by rising from the 
top of the mountain, in the eye of the sun. It was 
about midday, and bright for the climate. They at 
first made small circles, and the young birds imitated 
them. They paused on their wings, waiting till they 
had made their flight, and then took a second and 
larger gyration, always rising towards the sun, and 
enlarging their circle of flight so as to make a 
gradually ascending spiral. The young ones still 
and slowly followed, apparently flying better as they 
mounted : and they continued this sublime exercise, 
always rising, till they became mere points in the 
air, and the young ones were lost, and afterwards 
their parents, to our aching sight." 

Of the bald eagle it is related by many writers 
that when he compels the fish-hawk to let go its 
prey, he pursues the falling fish so rapidly as to 
catch it before it reaches the water. 

The full speed of the peregrine falcon, Mr. Wood 
says, " has been computed at a hundred and fifty 
miles per hour/' 

Mr. Wood and Mr. Tristram agree that the 



EAGLES. jjc 



griffon-vulture is the bird, or one of the birds, 
whose name is rendered " The Eagle " in our 
version of the Scriptures. Mr. Tristram says 
of it : — 

"There can be no doubt of the identity of the 
Hebrew l nesher? with the Arabic 'nissr, 9 the name 
invariably applied not to any eagle, strictly so-called, 
but to the griffon {gyps fulvus) of naturalists, 
commonly known as the griffon-vulture, or great 
vulture. It is unfortunate that in our language we 
have but one word, ' vulture/ applied alike to the 
noble griffon, and to the very useful, bnt very des- 
picable scavenger, ' Pharoah's hen/ as Europeans 
in the East call the Egyptian vulture. . . . 

" We shall see, as we examine some of the 
passages where the nesher is spoken of, that the 
description is applicable to the griffon alone ; and 
so far from the griffon-vulture conveying the idea 
of a repulsive bird to the Oriental mind, it has been 
universally adopted as the type of the lordly and 
the noble. ... In Micah (i. 16) we read, ' Make thee 
bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children ; enlarge 
thy baldness as the eagle/ where the similitude can 
only be taken from the griffon-vulture, which has 
the neck and head bald and covered with down, a 
character which no eagle shares with it. . . . 



176 



CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



" Constant reference is made in Scripture to its 
feeding on the slain, and on dead flesh. Although 
this is a habit it shares with the eagle, yet no eagles 
congregate like the griffon ; and while the latter 
may be seen by hundreds, the less conspicuous 
eagles are only to be counted by a few individuals 
here and there." In the expression, ' Wheresoever 
the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered 
together' (Matt. xxiv. 28), the griffons undoubtedly 
are meant, and possibly eagles also. 

" The beak of the griffon is hooked and of great 
power, but its claws and feet are much weaker than 
those of the eagle, and are not adapted for killing 
prey." * 

" The vulture was one of the chief emblems of 
Egyptian power, its outspread wings continually 
recurring on the grand monuments and temples. . . . 

" Strangely enough, in their second captivity, the 
Jews met with the same emblem among the Assyr- 
ians. For example, their god Nisroch, whom we find 
mentioned as specially worshipped by Sennacherib, 
was a vulture-headed deity, bearing not only the 
head of the bird, but also its wings. The vast wings 
of the vulture were by the Assyrians used as types 
of divine power, and were therefore added, not 
only to human figures, but to those of beasts. The 

1 Nat. Hist, of the Bible. 



EAGLES. jjj 



human-headed and vulture-winged bulls of Nineveh, 
with which we are now so familiar, are good exam- 
ples of this peculiar imagery. The name Nisroch, 
by the way, is evidently the same word as nes/ier, 
and bears even closer resemblance to the Arabic 
Hissri This bird was also the war-standard of As- 
syria, just as the eagle is that of France." l 

Without attempting to decide positively as to 
the meaning of the Hebrew name, it seems to me 
probable that it meant the griffons and also others 
of the larger and nobler birds of prey. Hebrew 
terms are commonly of general significance, and 
translators often err by limiting their meaning to 
particulars. Concerning these birds as a whole it 
may be said, that of all living creatures they soar 
the highest, they have the most penetrating and 
comprehensive sight, and they themselves follow 
their sight the most quickly. 

If an idea of the omniscience and omnipresence 
of God were to be presented to us under any natural 
form, it could be no other than that of the eagle. 
These divine attributes were represented to John 

1 Bible Animals. 
8* L 



iy8 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

as a flying eagle (Rev. iv. 7), of which Swedenborg 
says : — 

" That by this is signified the appearance in ulti- 
mates of the Divine Watchfulness and Providence, 
as to intelligence and circumspection in every 
direction, is manifest from the signification of an 
eagle, as denoting intelligence ; in this case the 
Divine Intelligence of the Watchfulness and Prov- 
idence of the Lord. An eagle signifies intelligence, 
because intelligence is in the light of heaven, and 
an eagle flies on high to be so, and to look about 
on every side. ... In a good sense, the birds of 
heaven signify intellectual and rational powers ; 
and the eagle above all others because it not only 
flies high, but possesses a most acute sight." l 

In a human sense, therefore, eagles represent 
the affections for thinking which penetrate the 
most interiorly and see the furthest ; their special 
delight it is to rise, and to lead their spiritual 
children to rise, towards the Lord, and to see 
things in the direct light in which He sees them. 
"A man who draws wisdom from God," Sweden- 
borg writes, " is like a bird flying on high ; he 

1 A. E. 281. See also A. R. 244. 



EAGLES. 



179 



looks about upon all things which are in gardens, 
woods, and farms, and flies to those which are of 
use to him." l 

There are many kinds of atmospheres, — some 
which are heavenly, some earthly, and some infer- 
nal. There are poisonous atmospheres, in which 
no one can think what is true and good, but only 
what conduces to some selfish indulgence or acqui- 
sition. There are moral atmospheres, in which 
every one thinks naturally what is becoming, 
orderly, and useful. There are spiritual atmos- 
pheres, in which it is easy to think what is from 
the Lord, and spiritually good and right. To 
climb into heavenly atmospheres is to think from 
heavenly order and heavenly truth, to perceive 
what heaven is, and to look upon all things from 
an interior heavenly state. " To be borne on 
eagles' wings," Swedenborg says, " is to be raised 
on high even into heavenly light. For the 
ancients understood by the visible heaven the 
angelic heaven ; the simple also believed that 

1 T. C. R. 69. See also A. C. 8764. 



180 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

the home of the angels was there ; and also that 
on high, as being nearer to the sun and stars, 
there was heavenly light itself. Hence it is that 
to be borne on eagles' wings denotes to be raised 
on high into that light. ,> 1 This appearance is in 
the spiritual world entirely true. The homes of 
angels are there on high ; and to rise towards them 
is to come into the light. 

What is meant by the light, or illustration, which 
they receive who rise into the heaven of their 
minds, Swedenborg explains thus : — 

" Every man, as to his thoughts and affections, 
is in the spiritual world, consequently he is there 
as to his spirit ; for it is the spirit of man which 
thinks and is affected. He who is made spiritual 
by regeneration from the Lord is, as to his spirit, 
in a heavenly society ; but the natural man, or one 
who is not regenerated, is, as to his spirit, in an 
infernal society ; with the latter, evils continually 
flow in from hell, and are also received with delight ; 
but with the former, good things continually flow 
in from heaven, and are also received ; and whereas 
good things flow into his affection and by means of 

i A. C. 8764. 



EAGLES. 181 



the affection into the thought, he has thence illus- 
tration. This illustration is what is understood by 
the spiritual intelligence and power of view which 
are signified by the wings of the eagle, given to the 
woman, with which she fled into the wilderness. . . . 
Moreover, by these is signified the understanding 
of truth ; for all who are of that church [signified 
by the woman] have the understanding enlightened, 
by virtue whereof they are enabled to see truth from 
the light of truth.'* l 

The process by which the Lord raises man from 
a natural to a spiritual state, in which he thinks 
the truth of heaven, and sees in the light of heaven, 
is thus described in the Song of Moses : " The 
Lord's portion is His people ; Jacob is the lot of 
His inheritance. He found him in a desert land, 
and in the waste howling wilderness : He led him 
about, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple 
of His eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, flut- 
tereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, 
taketh them, beareth them on her wings ; so the 
Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange 
god with him." (Deut. xxxii. 9-12.) 

1 A. E. 759. 



1 82 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

Elevation into heavenly states by spiritual flying 
has been described, but there is also descent from 
the heavens to those who need help ; and rapid 
change of place without much elevation, which 
corresponds to the power of quickly thinking or 
imagining remote things. Of such mental sight 
and presence Swedenborg writes: — 

" That by flying, in speaking of men, is signified 
observation and simultaneous presence, is because 
sight is present with the object which it sees ; that 
it appears remote or distant, is from the intermediate 
things which appear at the same time, and can be 
measured as to spaces. This may be fully confirmed 
from those things which exist in the spiritual world ; 
there, spaces themselves are appearances arising 
from the diversity of affections and thoughts thence ; 
wherefore, when any persons or things appear at a 
distance, and an angel or spirit desires from intense 
affection to meet those who are there, or to examine 
the things, he is immediately present. It is similar 
with thought, which is the internal or spiritual sight 
of man : this looks at the things which it had 
seen before, in itself without space, thus altogether 
as present. Hence it is that flying is predicated 
of the intellect and its intelligence, and that by 



EAGLES. !83 



it is signified observation, looking about, and pres- 
ence." x 

There are angels who have a special faculty of 
clear sight and quick presence in distant places, 
for the sake of giving instruction from the Lord 
where it is needed. In one of his " Relations," 
Swedenborg describes an angel who was seen by 
him, " flying beneath the eastern heaven. . . . He 
was clad in a robe which flowed backwards as he 
flew, and was girded with a belt of carbuncles and 
sapphires, which, as it were, flamed and shone : 
he flew downwards and alighted gently upon the 
earth" in the world of spirits. He came to convoke 
an assembly of the wisest men from Christendom, 
that they might declare what they knew concerning 
heavenly joy and happiness ; for it had been related 
in the society from which the angel descended that 
no one in the Christian world knew what these 
things are. This information was found to be en- 
tirely correct ; and after the angel had introduced 
various companies of spirits into the enjoyments 

i A. E. 282. 



^4 correspondences of the bible. 

which they supposed to constitute heavenly hap- 
piness, and they had found how wearisome and 
unsatisfactory they were, he selected ten men from 
the assembly and led them up " a certain hill, and 
thence up a mountain, upon which was the heaven 
of those angels, which had before appeared to them 
at a distance like an expanse in the clouds/' They 
were prepared by the Lord to remain there three 
days ; and during that time they were instructed 
in many delightful things of angelic life and 
happiness. 

But what is noticeable for our present purpose 
is, that the ensign of that society, which, made of 
gold and diamonds, was worn by the prince, was 
"an eagle brooding her young at the top of a tree." 
The marriage ensign also was "a young eagle/' 
which was engraved upon a golden plate set around 
with diamonds, and worn by the bridegroom as a 
breastplate. 

Now, no doubt, the intelligence with which these 
angels scrutinized the ignorance of the Christian 
world, and the good they did in gathering and 



EAGLES. 



185 



instructing the representatives of it, belonged to 
their ordinary faculty and duty as a heavenly 
society ; though their faculties might usually be 
exercised in other directions. Like eagles of 
heaven, they looked down upon the state of the 
world ; and, quickly descending, they gathered 
those who needed instruction, and selecting those 
who were most suitable for their purpose, they 
carried them to their mountain home, probably 
with the resulting benefit of mutual information. 
The spirits from another earth in the starry 
heaven, Swedenborg describes as having relation 
in the Greatest Man to keenness of vision. He 
adds : — 

" On this account, they appear on high, and they 
also are remarkably keen-sighted. In consequence 
of their having such relation in the Greatest Man, 
which is heaven, and of their seeing clearly the 
things which are beneath, in discoursing with them 
I compared them to eagles, which fly aloft, and 
enjoy a clear and extensive view of objects beneath. 
But at this they expressed indignation, supposing I 
compared them to eagles as to rapaciousness, and 



1 86 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

thus that they were wicked ; but I replied that I 
did not liken them to eagles as to rapaciousness, 
but as to quick-sightedness ; adding that they who 
are like eagles as to rapaciousness, are wicked, but 
that they who resemble them as to quick-sightedness 
only, are good." l 

In regard to the difference between vultures and 
eagles ; — the vultures are chiefly carrion-feeders, 
and have little power of taking prey ; the eagles 
usually take their prey alive, and have the power 
to kill it quickly and almost painlessly : the 
vultures feed their young on food which they 
disgorge ; the eagles on the fresh meat which 
they bring in their claws : the vultures flock 
together in hungry crowds ; the eagles are usually 
solitary with their mates. That both feed upon 
flesh, signifies that the subjects of attention and 
thought, of the intelligence which they typify, are 
human affections. That vultures gorge themselves 
with such as is dead and putrefying, signifies that 
the peculiar intelligence which they represent loves 

i A. C. 9969, 9970. 



EAGLES. 



187 



to spy and think of affections in which there is no 
heavenly life, but which are redolent of evil ; this 
also they disgorge to their young, not simply as 
they saw it, but as they have thought it over and 
gloated upon it. The eagles' love of taking their 
prey in life, and carrying it home as it is, repre- 
sents, in the good sense, the affection for seeing 
good life as it is, and presenting it to those who 
need instruction, with simple truthfulness. 

I think that in every instance in the Bible in 
which the name " eagles " is applied to animals 
which are bald, or which flock to their prey, — 
consequently to vultures, — it is used in the evil 
sense. 1 The signification of the solitary eagles 
spoken of in the Bible is usually, perhaps always, 
good. The Lord likens the Church, when its life 
is gone, because there is no charity in it, to a 
carcase over which the vultures gather together ; 
where " the vultures " represent those who enjoy 
seeing and thinking evil. 

1 See examples in A. C. 3900, 3901. 



1 88 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

Sennacharib, also, and the Assyrians and Chal- 
deans, as worshippers of Nisroch, have the same 
signification as vultures, though Assyria in other 
connections has sometimes a good signification. 



DOVES. 



189 



DOVES. 

I"F there is in eagles something of the nobility of 
lions, doves are marked with the innocence 
and mutual love of lambs and sheep. Indeed, they 
were accepted for certain sacrifices instead of 
lambs. (Lev. xii. 8.) They are without weapons 
of offence or defence, and can protect themselves 
from danger only by the remarkable swiftness and 
endurance of their flight. They are timid, and love 
the neighborhood and protection of man, by whom 
they are easily tamed. 

They love to live in companies, and to fly 
together, " as a cloud, to their windows." Im- 
mense flocks of them, darkening the sky for many 
miles in their flight, are known to our western 
country. Of these flocks Wilson relates a curious 
fact illustrative of their resemblance to sheep. He 
says that when a hawk swoops upon a pigeon in 
the flying cloud, the others in the neighborhood 



l 9 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



dive low in fear, quickly rising again to rejoin 
their companions ; and as others come up to the 
same place, though the hawk be gone, they drop 
also, thus preserving a wave in the line till the last 
pigeon has passed. 

The Arabs take a cruel advantage of their ready 
sympathy. They tie to a bough of a tree a dove 
with his eyelids fastened together. Others hear 
his cries and flock about to help him, when they 
are easily knocked down or snared. 

The faithfulness of doves to their mates during 
life is not peculiar to them, but I think that the 
extreme tenderness of their expressions of love 
belongs to them alone. They stroke each other 
with their bills, and kiss and coo as if they never 
could express enough, and never would be weary. 
If one dies, it occasionally happens that the mate 
dies too from grief, though it more commonly 
happens that after a time it is mated again. They 
work together in building their nest, sit upon the 
eggs in turn, and alike care for the young. Their 
eggs are generally two at a time, usually a male 



DOVES. I9I 



and a female ; and they may have as many as nine 
broods in a year ; so that their love for their young 
is perennial, instead of being limited to a short 
season, as in most birds. They are very fond of 
their little ones, and have a curious means of 
preparing food for them, which approaches the 
milk glands of mammals. During the time for 
feeding the young birds, the walls of their crops 
thicken and become rough with glands, which 
secrete a milky fluid. This mixes with the grains 
in the crop, reducing them to a soft pulp, with 
which they feed the little doves according to their 
need. 

The difference between love for the young in 
doves and the same in fierce birds and beasts, 
is that the fierce animals resent injury to their 
young as injury to themselves, and are furious and 
revengeful ; but the doves only flutter anxiously, 
and grieve and moan. Self-love is revengeful; 
good love sorrows. The difference between the 
dove's feeding her young with food from her own 
crop, and the similar habit of vultures is spiritually 



IQ2 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



that the dove affection teaches the truth with 
innocent love both for the truth and for her little 
ones ; and vultures teach evil with selfish exulta- 
tion. 

So plain is the representation of the dove, that 
it tells its own meaning ; yet, for the sake of 
completeness, we may acknowledge that as all 
birds represent affections for ideas, and for 
thinking from ideas, doves represent affections 
for the heavenly ideas that agree with innocent 
love to the Lord and conjugial love. 1 

Swedenborg relates that on a time he was 
thinking deeply of the region of the mind in 
which conjugial love resides ; and suddenly, in the 
spiritual world, the mind was represented to him 
as a palace with three stories, having open win- 
dows in each story. And there appeared a pair of 
swans which flew in by the lower windows, a pair 
of birds of paradise which entered through the 
middle windows, and a pair of turtle-doves flew in 
through the highest. And then an angel explained 

i A. E. 282. A. C. 10132. 



DOVES. 



*93 



to him that the turtle-doves signified conjugial love 
in the highest region of the mind, which is the 
plane of love from the Lord with the wisdom of 
that love ; and that the birds of paradise and the 
swans represented conjugial love on the lower 
planes respectively. Again he says : — 

" When I was meditating concerning conjugial 
love, behold there appeared at a distance two naked 
infants with baskets in their hands, and turtle-doves 
flying around them ; and when they were seen nearer 
they appeared as if they were naked, but handsomely 
adorned with garlands ; chaplets of flowers decorated 
their heads, and wreaths of lilies and roses of a violet 
color, hanging obliquely from the shoulders to the 
loins, adorned their breasts ; and round about them 
both was as it were a common band woven together 
from small leaves with olives interspersed. But when 
they came up nearer they did not appear as infants, 
nor naked, but in the first flower of age, clad in robes 
and tunics of shining silk, in which were interwoven 
flowers most beautiful to the sight ; and, when they 
were close to me, there breathed forth from heaven 
through them a vernal heat,with a sweet odor, as from 
the earliest flowers in gardens and fields." } 

1 C. L. 137. 

Q M 



94 



CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE, 



They came to him from the inmost heaven as 
forms of conjugial love ; all the things about them 
were representatives of that love ; and among them 
the turtle-doves represented the delights .of its 
innocent thoughts. 

In the Scriptures, the destruction of the innocent 
goodness of the earliest men on earth by the falsi- 
ties of their selfish conceits is represented by a 
flood of waters destroying all life from the earth. 
And the first perception of the return of goodness 
from the Lord to the hearts of men is represented 
by the plucking of an olive-leaf by the dove. The 
olive-leaf is such perception ; and the dove is 
delight in it from love for conjunction with the 
Lord. 

When Jesus was baptized by John, it is related 
that " He went up straightway out of the water ; 
and, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He 
saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and 
lighting upon Him. ,, (Matt. iii. 16.) The baptism 
of the Lord represented the gradual process of 
separating from Him the evils of His maternal 



DOVES. 



95 



humanity, and ordering His life according to the 
truth of the Word. After every such effort, by 
which the divine truth was established in Him, the 
Love of God descended upon Him like a dove, 
filling him with the delights of the union of good- 
ness and truth, and with the love of providing for 
the multiplication of such delights in men. 

The wings of the dove are described by the 
psalmist as " covered with silver," from the charity 
of her flights of thought ; and " her feathers with 
yellow gold," from the celestial delights of her love 
of thinking from the Lord. 



I9 6 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



SONG-BIRDS. 

TT7E have admired in the eagle the strong 
sweeps with which he climbs to the upper 
air, the penetration of his sight, and a general 
nobility of character. Not for these things do we 
love our little singing-birds, nor yet for any power 
of work, but chiefly for what they say, and their 
manner of saying it. Of all created things outside 
of humanity, these are the only ones which we 
value primarily for their voices and their vocal 
expressions. They love to take short flights in 
the air ; their sight is very quick, though of lim- 
ited range compared with that of the eagle ; they 
love the sunshine, the growing plants, with their 
flowers and fruits and the busy insects among 
them ; and in the time of spring and early summer, 
for which they seem to exist through the rest of 
the year, from the first dawn of the morning till 
the last golden light fades from the sky, they 



SONG-BIRDS. 



!97 



continually express their delight by songs. There 
is immense variety in their tones, from the busy 
chatter of the sparrows and the twitter of the 
swallows to the sweetly-varied responses of the 
wood-thrushes, as they answer one another from 
the distant tree-tops, giving assurance of friendly 
neighborhood and sympathy, far into the shades 
of the night. 

The singing-birds embody the love of conver- 
sation and vocal expression, so far as these relate 
to good human life. We find in their tones the 
counterparts of human expressions of gladness and 
affection, innocent converse and tender song. 

If our conversation be wholly and thoroughly 
sincere ; if our friendship be the sympathy of 
spiritual love for truth and goodness ; our love of 
doing good and giving pleasure unselfish ; and our 
delights, from the heavenly sunshine of the Lord's 
presence, — we shall have in the social communica- 
tion of such affection the correspondence of the 
songs of birds. Spiritual song-birds do not love 
sustained thought and abstract truth ; but they 



198 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

enjoy seeing everywhere the evidences and illus- 
trations of truth. 

"There are some persons," Swedenborg says, 
" who, as soon as they hear the truth, perceive that 
it is truth ; these are represented in the spiritual 
world as eagles. There are others who do not 
perceive truth, but conclude it from confirmations by 
appearances ; and these are represented by singing- 
birds. There are others who believe a thing to be 
true because it was asserted by a man of authority ; 
these are represented by magpies. And, also, there 
are others who are not willing, and then not able, 
to perceive truth, but only falsity ; ... the thoughts 
of these are represented by owls, and their speech 
by screech owls/' l 

It does not belong to our present work to dis- 
tinguish carefully the varieties of social affection 
represented by the many song-birds. They all are 
included under the common term " tsippor," in 
the Hebrew, and, with rare exceptions, are not 
mentioned separately in the Bible. The principal 
exception occurs in the verse, " Even the sparrow 
hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for 

a T. C. R. 42. 



SO.YG-BIRDS. 



T 99 



herself where she may lay her young, near thine 
altars, O Jehovah of hosts, my King and my God/' 
(Ps. lxxxiv. 4.) 

" Sparrow " in this passage is " tsippor," and 
means any singing, chirping bird. And the name 
" liberty," as applied to a bird which builds in 
the temple, can hardly mean any other than the 
swallow, which lives on the wing, perpetually 
going and coming, and cannot bear the least 
confinement. The Psalm from which these words 
are taken is a song of desire from the captives in 
Babylon for return to their temple and their homes 
in Jerusalem. The song-bird and the swallow can 
go, but they cannot ; that is, their affection for 
the spiritual truth of the service of the Lord, and 
for natural, free delight in His service, all centre 
there as in their homes ; but their own daily lives 
are still in spiritual captivity to evil and falsity. 1 

With careful attention, those who are familiar 
with birds will readily see their analogies. But, 
without attempting perfect accuracy, I may say 



1 A. E. 391 



2oo CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



that among our common birds the one which we 
familiarly call the robin, industrious, domestic, 
loud-voiced, at home in the orchards and mowing- 
fields, talks to me of the cares of house and family, 
and gives thanks for abundant supplies; his friend, 
the blue-bird, not less domestic, but softer and 
more varied in voice, and of more elegant plumage 
and form, tells of modest content, and of the 
pleasures of natural tastefulness in a frugal home. 
The merry, boastful bobolink, tumbling his notes 
out promiscuously as he flies, reminds me of 
children just from school, and tells of the joys of 
recreation after labor. 1 The sweet minor song 
of the mountain sparrow brings the restfulness of 
spiritual views of nature in solitude. And the 

1 The bobolink dons his gay black and white plumage, comes 
to his summer home and bursts into song, quite late in the season, 
— not until summer is fully established. After a very short season 
he silently resumes his sober robes and retires for a long winter. 
As a song-bird, he probably expresses the joys of deliverance from 
temptations, of relief from suffering, as well as " recreation after 
labor." It is significant in this connection, that in winter he is 
so fond of rice as to take the name of "rice-bird" in the South. 
The correspondence of rice is with duties done from obedience. 



SONG-BIRDS. 20 1 



several kinds of thrushes, living in the woods and 
by the waters, some with the power of appreciating 
and imitating the notes of all other birds, and most 
of them having of their own sweeter and more 
varied songs than any others, seem the very poets 
and singers of our social world. They sing to me 
of the sweetest and most interior domestic affec- 
tions and friendships. 

All these, and many others, represent affections 
which enjoy illustrations of truth and evidences of 
goodness ; of these they talk and sing, innocently 
and with charity. 



9* 



2 02 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



BIRDS OF BEAUTIFUL PLUMAGE. 

TT is rare that birds possessing pleasant voices 

are gifted also with beautiful feathers. The 

blue-birds and canaries are, perhaps, the most 

notable exceptions. Upon this subject Mr. Wood 

remarks : — 

" As a general rule, it is found that the most 
brilliant songsters among the birds are attired in 
the plainest garb ; and it may safely be predicted 
of any peculiarly gorgeous bird, that power, quality, 
and sweetness of voice are in inverse ratio to its 
beauty of plumage. ,, 

He mentions the dazzling colors of sun-birds, 
humming-birds, and some others, and says: — 

"In all these creatures, the male possesses no 
real song, the glorious beauty of the feathers 
compensating him and his mate for the absence of 
poetic utterance. Why this should be the case is a 
problem which has long attracted the attention of 
observant men, and it seems to me that a key may be 
found to its solution in the now acknowledged fact 



BIRDS OF BEAUTIFUL PLUMAGE. 203 



that sound and color run in parallel lines through 
creation, and closely correspond with each other in 
their several relations. ... It may be therefore that, 
on the one side, the bird which is possessed of a 
good voice and a plain dress pours forth his love 
and manifests his sympathetic emotions in gushing 
strains, which are addressed to the ears of his mate ; 
again, the bright-plumaged bird utters his voiceless 
song by the vivid hues that flash from his glittering 
attire, the eye being the only medium through which 
his partner, whose ears are not attuned to melody, 
could realize the fulness of his emotional utter- 
ance." x 

It is a singular fact, that among the brilliant 
birds there are several which love to adorn their 
homes and favorite haunts with lichens, bright 
feathers, shells, white stones, or any other gayly- 
colored materials that they can find. Perhaps they 
are the only animals with a decided taste of this 
kind. It is interesting to discover the love of 
expression by color and form, here in the line of 
birds parallel to that in which we found the love 
of musical expression. 

1 Nat. Hist, p. 258. 



2Q4 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



The difference seems to answer perfectly to that 
between the senses of sight and hearing. Songs, 
addressed to the ear, have more power to commu- 
nicate affection ; but forms and colors, addressed 
to the eye, impart ideas. The songs of birds are 
representatives of social communion of glad, grate- 
ful, and affectionate thoughts. Their beautiful 
plumage is representative of true ideas of the 
nature and quality of spiritual affections. 

We may express affection simply by words — 
chiefly by the tones of the words — and by songs ; 
or we, may express it by truthful description, and 
by tasteful decorations in colors and forms. The 
expression by sound has more power to excite 
strong feeling ; that by description and decoration 
shows more clearly its quality as to intelligence, 
refinement, and wisdom. 



THE BIRD OF PARADISE. 205 



THE BIRD OF PARADISE. 

'TPHE most charming of the beautiful birds is 
the bird of paradise. There are several 
species quite unlike one another in the disposition 
of their charms, yet all eminent for the combined 
grace and richness of their plumage. The emerald 
bird of paradise is thus described : — 

" The general color of the upper part of the body 
is rich chocolate brown, the whole of the front being 
covered with velvet-like feathers of the deepest 
green, at one moment sinking into black, and at 
another flashing forth with glittering emerald. The 
upper part of the throat is bright golden green, 
and the upper part of the neck a delicate yellow. 
The most wonderful part of this bird's plumage is 
the mass of loose floating plumes that rises from the 
flanks, and extends in a most graceful manner far 
beyond the tail. Even in the absolute quiet of a 
stuffed skin under a glass case, these plumes are 
full of an astonishing beauty, their translucent 
golden-white vanelets producing a most superb 
effect as they cross and recross each other, forming 



2o6 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

every imaginable shade of white, gold, and orange, 
and then deepening towards their extremities into 
a soft, purplish red. There is a magnificently ar- 
ranged specimen of this bird in the British Museum, 
placed in a separate case, and worthy of a separate 
journey merely for that one object. 

" But when the bird is living and healthy, no 
pen can describe the varied and changeful beauties 
that develop themselves at every moment ; for the 
creature seems to comprehend within its own single 
form the united beauties of all other members of the 
feathered tribe." 

Mr. Bennett describes the habits of an emerald 
bird of paradise in captivity. He says : 1 — 

" One of the best opportunities of seeing this 
splendid bird in all its beauty of actions, as well as 
display of plumage, is early in the morning, when 
he makes his toilet ; the beautiful subalar plumage 
is then thrown out and cleared from any spot that 
may sully its purity, by being passed gently through 
the bill ; the short chocolate-colored wings are ex- 
tended to the utmost, and he keeps them in a steady, 
flapping motion, as if in imitation of their use in 
flight, at the same time raising up the delicate long 
feathers over the back, which are spread in a chaste 

1 " Bennett's Wanderings," quoted in Wood's Nat. Hist. 



THE BIRD OF PARADISE. 



207 



and elegant manner, floating like films in the air. 
In this position the bird would remain for a short 
time, seemingly proud of its heavenly beauty, and 
in raptures of delight with its most enchanting self ; 
it will then assume various attitudes, so as to regard 
its plumage in every direction." 

The bird took a bath regularly twice a day ; but 
except for the bath would not descend to the bottom 
of its cage, for fear of soiling its feathers. 

" So proud is the creature of its elegant dress, 
that it never permits a soil to remain upon it, and 
it may frequently be seen spreading out its wings 
and feathers, and regarding its splendid self in 
every direction, to observe whether the whole of its 
plumage is in an unsullied condition. ,, 

He was much pleased with the reflection of 
himself in a mirror, regarding it kindly as another 
beautiful bird, but without the slightest envy. 

If he has no envy, I think it follows that he is 
not vain ; and, indeed, the whole description seems 
to show that he considers himself charged with the 
delightful duty of preserving in good order, and pre- 
senting always to the best advantage the exquisite 



208 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

beauties intrusted to him. He evidently corre- 
sponds to a love for presenting spiritual truth in 
all its gracefulness and goodness in order that it 
may be loved and lived. Swedenborg remarks 
that, " Some have thought what is spiritual to be 
like a bird that flies above the air in the ether, 
where sight does not reach ; when yet it is like a 
bird of paradise that flies near the eye, and touches 

9 

its pupil with his beautiful wings, and wishes to 
be seen." x 

Into the middle windows of the palace which 
represented the habitations of conjugial love in 
human minds, flew a pair of birds of paradise ; 
which, the angel said, represented the conjugial 
love of " the love of truth with its intelligence ; " 
that is, they represented the love of perceiving 
and presenting the beautiful truths of spiritual life, 
with the intelligent affection which receives them. 

The angels of the silver age delight in the study 
of spiritual truth, and, what is remarkably like the 
bird of paradise, they love the representation of it 

i D.L.W.374. 



THE BIRD OF PARADISE. . 209 



in forms and colors. In the visit to them, described 
in the work on "Conjugial Love," n. 76, Sweden- 
borg relates that a rainbow was presented "upon 
the wall, consisting of three colors, purple, blue, 
and white ; and we saw how the purple color passed 
the blue, and tinged the white with an azure color, 
and that this color flowed back through the blue 
into the purple, and elevated the purple into a 
brightness as of flame : " and an angel, explaining, 
said : " The purple color, from its correspondence, 
signifies the conjugial love of the wife, the white 
color the intelligence of the husband, the blue color 
the beginning of conjugial love in the husband's per- 
ception from the wife, and the azure color with which 
the whiteness was tinged, conjugial love then in the 
husband : this color flowing back through the blue 
into the purple, and elevating it into a brightness 
as of flame, signifies the conjugial love of the hus- 
band flowing back to the wife." 

This was one of many representations exhibited 
in that heaven in which the angels delighted. 
Such delight would be presented in form as noble 



210 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE, 

birds of beautiful plumage, varying in kind accord- 
ing to the wisdom especially loved. 

Our love of beautiful forms and colors is some- 
times from a similar origin. If our taste were 
quite sincere, that is, if we loved the things which 
really touch our hearts, and if our hearts were full 
of affection for spiritual truth and charity, and our 
perceptions of these things were clear, we should 
see that our hearts were touched, and consequently 
that our taste was delighted with the things that 
correspond to our affections. As it is, our sin- 
cerest pleasure in beauty is of this kind, though 
we perceive the correspondence obscurely or not 
at all. 



THE PEACOCK. 2 ii 



THE PEACOCK. 

r I ^HERE must be a quite noble charity in the 
love for presenting spiritual truth, or its 
beautiful representatives, simply for the use of it, 
and without personal complacency. The natural 
love of beautiful display is altogether another thing. 
It is vain and capricious ; and, if not sufficiently 
flattered, it becomes sulky and resentful. It is also 
jealous of rivals, and may be cruel. It does not 
produce its charms as a duty, and with a single 
view to doing good ; but capriciously, and, in part, 
to win admiration. 

This love is embodied in the peacock, a polyg- 
amous, jealous creature, who sometimes will 
graciously display his really beautiful plumes, 
sometimes will fold them and take them away, 
deaf to persuasion ; and, again, will persistently 
and earnestly press upon the attention of common 
fowls his worn-out drapery, too shabby for polite 
society. 



212 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

" In character," Mr. Wood remarks, " the peacock 
is as variable as other creatures, some individuals 
being mild and good-tempered, while others are 
morose and jealous to the extreme. One of these 
birds, living in the north of Ireland, was a curious 
mixture of cruelty and fun. He had four wives, 
but he killed them all successively by pecking them 
to death, for what cause no one could find out. 
Even his own children shared the same fate, until 
his owner put the pea-fowl eggs under a sitting hen, 
and forced her to hatch the eggs and tend the young 
far out of his sight." 1 

Similar complaints of their cruelty are not 
uncommon. 

Peacocks were among Solomons importations, 
with the gold and silver, ivory and apes. And as 
his apes corresponded to the externals of doctrine 
and devotion which seemed human, yet had no 
human soul, because no spiritual thought in them, 
so the peacocks represented the love of religious 
ceremonial, with no care for the spiritual truth 
and charity which it ought to express. 

l Nat. Hist. 



THE OSTRICH. 213 



THE OSTRICH. 

A NOTHER bird which, perhaps, should be 
mentioned among those of remarkable 
plumage, is the ostrich. It is a bird of the 
desert, with no power of flying, the very looseness 
of structure for which its wing and tail-feathers 
are valued, depriving them of their hold on the 
air. Instead, it possesses a power of running 
perhaps superior to that of any other animal. 

" The ostrich is polygamous, and several hens 
deposit their eggs in one place, — a hole scraped in 
the sand. . The eggs are then covered over, and 
left during the heat of the day ; but in the colder 
regions at any rate, as in the Sahara, the birds 
sit regularly during the night, and until the sun has 
full power, the male also incubating. But the ostrich 
lays an immense number of eggs, far more than 
are ever hatched, and round the covered eggs are 
to be found many dropped carelessly, as if she forgot 
that the frost might crack them, or the wild beast 
might break them. But most naturalists confirm 



214 



CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



the statement of the natives, that the eggs on the 
surface are left in order to afford sustenance to the 
newly-hatched chicks, which could not otherwise 
find food at first in these arid regions." 1 

Some of these peculiarities are well described in 
the book of Job : " The wings of the ostrich exult : 
but are her pinions and feathers like the stork ? 
Who leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth 
them in the dust ; and forgetteth that the foot 
may crush them, or that the wild beast may break 
them. She is hardened against her young ones as 
if they were not hers ; her labor is in vain without 
fear : because God hath deprived her of wisdom, 
neither hath He imparted to her understanding. 
What time she lifteth up herself on high, she 
scorneth the horse and his rider." (xxxix. 13-19.) 

The Arabs call the ostrich the " camel-bird ; " 2 
and they also regard him as stupid, partly because, 
since it is usually safest for him to run towards the 
wind, towards the wind he will go, even if it be also 

1 Tristram, " Nat. Hist, of the Bible." 

2 Bible Animals. 



THE OSTRICH 



2I 5 



towards his enemies : and partly from his habit 
of swallowing all sorts of indigestible things : no 
doubt they are acquainted with other habits of his 
which seem stupid. 1 

I think they name him well ; and that he is 
among birds very much what the camel is among 
quadrupeds. That he cannot fly means that there 
is nothing spiritual in the thought which he 
represents ; but the showiness of his wings indi- 
cates a great appearance of spiritual principle in 
it. His desert home, hard diet, and usual solita- 
riness all belong to the love of thinking such 
ascetic principles as spiritual camels love to live. 
The stupid persistency with which he follows his 
rule, even when inapplicable to the circumstances, 
is also camel-like. 

His usual representation in the Bible seems to be 
a state of severe and gloomy thought, deprived of 
all that is good and pleasant. " The daughter of 
my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the 
wilderness." (Lam. iv. 3.) " I will even make a 

1 Tristram. 



2i6 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. 
The beast of the field shall honor me, the dragons 
and the ostriches." (Isa. xliii. 19, 20.) In several 
other places they are mentioned similarly, as signs 
of vastation. 



THE STORK. 



217 



THE STORK. 

FN the passage quoted from the book of Job, 
the wings of the ostrich are contrasted with 
those of the stork. 

There is a marked contrast between them, ostrich 
wings being composed of showy plumes useless for 
flight, and the wings of the stork being long and 
firm, adapted to flights both high and prolonged. 
But the contrast meant by the ancient writer is 
between the characters of the birds, especially in 
regard to their affection for their young. This 
also is exhibited in the structure of the wings ; for 
the light plumage of the ostrich has no capacity 
and expresses no desire for protection of the little 
ones ; to which motherly work the stork's strong 
pinions are as well suited as for flight. 

The Hebrew name for the stork is " kindness." 
It is a slightly modified form of the word which 
occurs in such expressions as " Shew kindness to 
10 



2i8 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

thy servant ; " " Have mercy upon me, O God, 
according to thy loving-kindness." The Romans 
called it the "pious-bird" {pia avis), from its duti- 
fulness both to its young, and, as they believed, to 
its parents also. Mr. Wood says : — 

" The stork is noted for being a peculiarly kind 
and loving parent to its young, in that point fully 
deserving of its Hebrew name, though its love 
manifests itself towards the young, and not towards 
the parent." 

Tristram relates that he " was once in a camp near 
an old ruined tower in the plains of Zana, south of the 
Atlas, where a pair of storks had their nest. The four 
young might often be seen from a little distance, 
surveying the prospect from their lonely height, but 
whenever any of the human party happened to stroll 
near the tower, one of the old storks, invisible before, 
would instantly appear, and, lighting on the nest, 
put its feet gently on the necks of all the young, so 
as to hold them down out of sight till the stranger had 
passed, snapping its bill meanwhile, and assuming 
a grotesque air of indifference and unconsciousness 
of there being any thing under its charge." 1 

1 Diet, of the Bible. 



THE STORK. 219 



It should be mentioned further, that the stork is 
a migratory bird, in its journeyings flying very high, 
in large flocks, and returning with remarkable cer- 
tainty to its old haunts ; and that its long legs are 
made for wading in shallow pools and streams, in 
which it catches the fish, eels, frogs, and other 
small creatures which naturally constitute its food. 
We may safely see in the stork the affection for 
observing and thinking carefully of little children, 
for understanding the ways of education, and 
providing for them suitable natural information. 
It does not seem to represent a very interior 
affection, but one which is very faithful to duty. 

The passages in the Bible where it is mentioned 
refer to the natural habits of the bird, but do not 
very fully illustrate its meaning. " Where the 
birds make their nests ; as for the stork, the fir- 
trees are her house." (Ps. civ. 17.) " Yea, the 
stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times ; 
and the turtle and the crane and the swallow ob- 
serve the time of their coming; but my people 
know not the judgment of the Lord." (Jer. 
viii. 7.) 



2 20 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



THE COCK AND HEN. 

/^\UR common domestic fowls, with small powers 
of flight, but busy all day scratching and 
searching the ground for seeds, insects, and scraps 
of every thing that has nutriment in it, represent a 
love of collecting all sorts of knowledge serviceable 
to good natural life. They never stray far from 
their own house or barn, which represents a sub- 
servience to uses. They lay up the nourishment 
they obtain in a generous supply of eggs, the first 
use of which is the multiplication of their kind ; 
but another, not second in importance, is to furnish 
food to man. The meat in the eggs corresponds 
to knowledge which has been digested and prepared 
to nourish other similar affections for knowledge, 
and to serve for use to spiritual thought. 

The calf has also been called a love of knowl- 
edge ; but his love is for knowing the things which 
will make him useful to society. The fowls, spir- 



THE COCK AND THE HEN. 2 2i 

itually understood, love knowledge of the same 
kind ; but they serve by knowledge itself, not by 
affection or work. 

Their early crowing is from pleasure in the 
coming light by which knowledge may be gained ; 
their fighting is from conceit of knowledge ; the 
motherly carefulness of hens is from delight in 
ministering to desires for knowledge. 

The Lord said to Peter, " Before the cock crow, 
thou shalt deny me thrice ; " predicting the utter 
lack of faith in Him before the dawn of His second 
coming. This coming is heralded by a new pleas- 
ure in the pursuit of useful knowledge, of which 
we see an amazing increase in every direction : 
and that increase is for the service of spiritual 
thought and life when the sun ariseth. He also 
said to Jerusalem, " How often would I have 
gathered thy children together, even as a hen doth 
gather her chickens under her wings ; and ye 
would not." They would not, because they had no 
desire for the knowledge of useful life. 



222 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE, 



PARTRIDGES AND QUAILS 

A RE closely akin to our domestic fowls, being 
scratchers, and living upon the ground ; but 
they are wild, and love their freedom. They rep- 
resent a kindred love of knowledge, but natural, 
and for the sake of knowing, without regard to 
useful ends. Therefore it is said in the Bible, 
" As the partridge sitteth upon eggs and hatcheth 
them not, so he that getteth riches, and not by 
right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and 
at his end shall be a fool." (Jer. xvii. n.) Swe- 
denborg explains that the partridge here means 
" those who procure to themselves knowledges 
without any other use . . . than that they may 
know them." * Yet partridges are among the 
birds useful for food ; the stores which they col- 
lect are serviceable, though this is no part of their 
intention. 

i A. E. 236. 



PARTRIDGES AND QUAILS. 223 

Of quails, we read in the Bible that during the 
journey of the Israelites through the wilderness of 
Sinai, though the Lord fed them with manna from 
heaven, they complained and wept, saying, " Who 
shall give us flesh to eat ? We remember the fish 
which we did eat in Egypt freely ; the cucumbers 
and the melons, the leeks and the onions and the 
garlic ; but now our soul is dried away ; there is 
nothing at all besides this manna before our eyes. 
. . . And there went forth a wind from the Lord, 
and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall 
by the camp, as it were a day's journey on this 
side, and as it were a day's journey on the other 
side, round about the camp, and as it were two 
cubits high above the face of the earth. And the 
people stood up all that day, and all that night, and 
all the next day, and they gathered the quails." 
(Num. xi.) 

The manna which the people despised represents 
the delight of being taught by the Lord. The 
quails which they desired represent the desire for 
the natural pleasure of learning for themselves ; a 



224 



CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



desire which, in conflict with the duty of being led 
by the Lord, was evil, and brought a plague ; but 
which is good in its right place, in time of rest and 
recreation. 

It seems to me that, as the common fowls are, 
in the line of birds, correlative with the kine 
among quadrupeds, so the partridges and quails, 
which are their wild and natural relatives, are 
correlative with the deer and antelopes : the par- 
tridges with the deer, because they are more 
lonely, and endure the northern winters ; the 
quails with antelopes, because they are smaller, 
more social, and usually migratory. The knowl- 
edge which spiritual partridges love is certainly 
a knowledge of the winters as well as the summers 
of life ; but the quails, as a rule, seek that of 
perpetual summer. 



THE OWL. 



225 



THE OWL. 

" nr^HERE are few groups of birds which are 
-** so decidedly marked as the owls, and 
so easy of recognition. The round, puffy head, 
the little hooked beak just appearing from the 
downy plumage with which it is surrounded, the 
large, soft, blinking eyes, and the curious disk of 
feathers which radiate from the eye and form a 
funnel-shaped depression, are such characteristic 
distinctions, that an owl, even of the least owl-like 
aspect, can at once be detected and referred to its 
proper place in the animal kingdom. There is a 
singular resemblance between the face of an owl 
and that of a cat, which is the more notable as both 
these creatures have much the same kind of habits, 
live on the same prey, and are evidently representa- 
tives of the same idea in their different classes. 
The owl, in fact, is a winged cat, just as the cat is 
a furred owl. These birds are, almost without an 
exception, nocturnal in their habits, and are fitted 
for their peculiar life by a most wonderfully adapted 
form and structure. The eyes are made so as to 
take in every ray of light, and are so sensitive to its 
10* o 



226 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

influence that they are unable to endure the glare 
of daylight, being formed expressly for the dim light 
of evening or earliest dawn. An ordinary owl of 
almost any species, when brought into the full light 
of day, becomes quite bewildered with the unwonted 
glare, and sits blinking uncomfortably, in a pitiable 
manner, seemingly as distressed as a human being 
on whose undefended eyes the meridian sun is 
shining." * 

The common food of owls consists of mice, bats, 
other small animals, and insects. There are many 
species of owls, some not larger than jays, and 
others appearing in full plumage as large as eagles. 

" Mr. Wilson states that the great owls not un- 
frequently engage in combat with the eagle himself, 
and that they often come off victorious. These 
powerful and voracious birds . . . occasionally kill 
the fawns of the stag, roebuck, and reindeer." 2 

Mr. Wood quotes from " a correspondent " the 
following account of a horned owdet : — 

" The horned owlet has a peculiarly cat-like ex- 
pression of face ; and this, I think, was the chief 

1 Wood's Nat. Hist. 2 Quoted in Nat. Hist. 



THE OWL. 227 



attraction possessed by a downy, grayish-white ball, 
that was thrust into my lap by one of my boy friends, 
who at the same time announced its name and 
nature. 

" With great delight I proceeded to introduce him 
to my other bird-pets, but the intense excitement 
caused by his presence compelled me to remove him 
with all speed. The small birds were all afraid of 
him ; but the jackdaw and magpie both charged 
poor ' Blinker ' at once. It then struck me that 
the cat-like face and nocturnal mousing habits of 
the creature indicated the deep secret of its nature, 
and, if so, that it would have more sympathy with 
the feline establishment than with that of the birds. 
Acting upon this impression, I at once conveyed 
him to pussy's closet, and introduced him to its oc- 
cupants ; namely, Mrs. Fanny and her blind kitten. 
Pussy regarded him at first with very suspicious 
looks ; but the poor bird, feeling pleased with the 
dim light and pussy's soft, warm coat, soon nestled 
up to her. This act of confidence on Blinker's part 
appeared to affect Fanny favorably, and she at once 
purred him a welcome. From this time they were fast 
friends, and many mice did she good-naturedly pro- 
vide for Blinker in common with her own kitten." 

The barn-owl, he writes, " is a terrible foe to 
mice, especially to the common field-mouse, great 



228 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

numbers of which are killed daily by a single pair 
of owls when they are bringing up their young 
family. . . . One of these owls, belonging to a friend, 
. . . was a confirmed murderer of bats and small 
birds, as well as mice. . . . Six to eight small birds 
were often counted when its hole was explored in 
the early morning, and once the owl had poked 
fourteen bats " into it. . . . " So fiercely does this 
bird strike, that I knew an instance where a dog 
was blinded by the stroke of a barn-owl's claws. 
The owl was a tame one, and the dog — a stranger 
— went up to inspect the bird. As the dog ap- 
proached the owl, the bird rolled quietly over on its 
back, and when the dog put his head to the pros- 
trate bird, it struck so sharply with its claws that it 
destroyed both the eyes of the poor animal, which 
had to be killed on account of the injury." 

Of the great owl, Mr. Tristram w 7 rites : — 

u It is a large and noble-looking bird, nearly two 
feet long. ... It inhabits ruins and caves all over 
the Holy Land. We found it in tombs in Carmel, 
in the robbers' caves near Gennesaret, in the hermit 
caves above Jericho, among the ruined cities oi 
southern Judah, and in the desert wadys near Beer- 
sheba, among the temples of Rabbath-Ammon ; in 
fact, everywhere where man has been and is not." l 

a " Nat. Hist, of the Bible." 



THE OWL. 229 



This fierce, darkness-loving bird represents a 
mind quick and keen in its powers of thinking, yet 
hating the light of truth, and active only in false 
and delusive light. 

"They who have confirmed themselves in faith 
separated from charity," Swedenborg says, . . . "are 
not in possession of any truths, but merely of falsi- 
ties. But the falsities of their faith do not indeed 
appear before them as darkness, that is, as falsities, 
but they appear to them as if they were lucid, that 
is, as if they were truths, after they have confirmed 
themselves in them ; but nevertheless, while they 
are viewed from the light of heaven, which discovers 
all things, they appear dark ; for which reason, when 
the light of heaven flows into their dens in hell, the 
darkness is such that they cannot see one another : 
on which account every hell is closed so as not to 
leave a crevice open, and then they are in their own 
light ; the reason that they do not appear to them- 
selves to be in darkness, but in the light, although 
they are in falsities, is because their falsities after 
confirmation appear to them as truths ; hence comes 
their light, but it is the light of infatuation, such 
as is the light of the confirmation of what is false. 
This light corresponds to that to which owls and 
bats owe their sight, to whom darkness is light, and 



230 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



light darkness ; yea, to whom the sun itself is thick 
darkness : eyes like these have they after death, 
who, during their abode in the world, confirmed 
themselves in falsities to such a degree as to see 
falsity as truth and truth as falsity." x 

The desolate places and ruins which owls love 
to inhabit represent states from which the life of 
charity has disappeared. The Christian Church, 
at its end, was a ruined city, deserted by every 
good spiritual affection. The light of truth also 
was gone from it ; for in both the Catholic and 
the Protestant Churches the Lord was denied. 
Catholic leaders taught that He had given all 
power to Peter, and through him to the popes, 
reserving none to Himself ; and Protestants that 
He was one of three Gods ; that the Father alone 
was to be worshipped ; and that salvation w r as 
given to all who believed in the sacrifice of the 
Son as atonement for their sins. When men 
who have confirmed such doctrines are told that 
the Lord is the only God ; that He removes the 

i A. R. 695. See also A. R. 566; and A. C. 4967, S66. 



THE OWL. 



23 1 



desire for evil from those who repent and do His 
commandments, and then gives them His own 
love for good ; — when they are thus led into clear 
heavenly sunlight, they can only blink, and hurry 
as fast as possible into the dark, talking about the 
penalty of the violation of law, the Lord as bearing 
the penalty for us all, and making it possible for a 
just God to forgive all who believe in that vicarious 
atonement. In this dark light they are sharp, 
quick, and eager for prey, and some are really 
powerful. The mice which they especially hunt 
for and easily capture, are the loves for sly, selfish 
indulgence, which are afraid to show themselves 
openly, but are readily caught by the idea that the 
quality of the life makes no difference ; faith alone, 
or the Pope alone, being necessary to salvation. 

The bats, which seem to be equally desired for 
prey, are similar to mice, except that they are 
winged. They correspond to loves for thinking 
similar false principles, with delight in the evil 
pleasures to which they lead. As having wings 
and powers of flight they are somewhat like birds, 



232 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



and represent quick thought and confirmations of 
falsity ; but their real heart is love for the evil 
pleasures taught or excused by the falsity. 

Since the representation of owls is as has been 
described, when the psalmist says, " I am like an 
owl of the desert " (Ps. cii. 6), he describes a state 
of inability to see the truth, or in which falsity 
appears as truth. The prophet Isaiah says of a 
church from which truth and charity have departed, 
" The owl also and the raven shall dwell in it. . . . 
There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, 
and hatch, and gather under her shadow." (Isa 
xxxiv. ii, 15.) 

The same prophet, speaking of the coming ol 
the Lord, says, " In that day a man shall cast his 
idols of silver and his idols of gold, which they 
made each one for himself to worship, to the moles 
and to the bats " (ii. 20) ; because the idols of 
silver and gold represent the fictitious good, or the 
pleasant evil of false principles, in which spiritual 
moles and bats delight. 



THE RAVEN. 233 



THE RAVEN. 

A SSOCIATED with the owl, as an inhabitant 
of waste places, is the raven ; under which 
term, no doubt, are included all birds of the raven 
family. 

Perhaps it will never be a settled question 
whether our crows and their kindred rooks do 
more good as insect and carrion eaters, or harm 
by devouring little birds and pulling up the corn. 
If regarded as helpers, they are very blundering 
and indiscriminate helpers ; if as enemies, they 
are clumsy, not malignant, and not very harmful. 

The raven proper is a much larger bird, now 
scarce in our country except in the forests. Mr. 
Tristram says of him : — 

" The carnivorous propensities of the raven, and 
especially its habit of attacking weak or sickly ani- 
mals, and of always commencing by picking out 
their eyes, is alluded to in Prov. xxx. 17 : ' The eye 



234 



CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey 
his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out/ 
We have more than once seen the ravens thus attack 
a newly-dropped kid." x 

Mr. Wood adds: — 

" Like all feeders on carrion, it is wonderfully 
quick in detecting a dead or dying animal, and 
rivals the vulture itself in the sharpness of its 
vision. If any one who is passing over a part of 
the country where ravens still survive, should wish 
to see one of the birds, he has only to lie flat on 
the ground, and keep his eyes nearly shut, so as 
only to see through the lashes. Should there be a 
raven within many miles, it is sure to discover the 
apparently dead body, and to alight at no great dis- 
tance, walking round and round, with its peculiar 
sidelong gait, and, if it be not checked in time, will 
make a dash at the eye of the prostrate individual, 
and probably blind him for life. This habit of 
pecking at the eye is inherent in all the crow 
tribe." 2 

With little beauty in their blue-black coats and 
no music in their voices, they present to us images 

i Nat. Hist, of Bible. 2 Bible Animals. 



THE RAVEN'. 



235 



of those who are ignorant and superstitious, not 
knowing very clearly the difference between good 
and evil, but loving to think and chatter about spir- 
itual things from appearances, seeing in them signs 
and omens. The Scandinavians called the raven 
" the bird of Odin ; " the ancient Greeks also drew 
auguries from his doings, supposed to reveal his 
intuitions of future events. " Natural men/' Swe- 
denborg says they signify, " who, concerning divine 
truths, are in darkest lumen from fallacies, in which 
have been many of the gentiles." * 

In the Scriptures, the raven stands sometimes 
for those who hold tenaciously to the falsities of 
ignorance, and sometimes simply for the densely 
ignorant gentiles, who yet are cared for by God, 
and may afterwards be instructed. In the former 
sense, it is said that when the waters of the flood 
began to subside, Noah " sent forth a raven, which 
went forth to and fro until the waters were dried 
up from off the earth " (Gen. viii. 7) ; signifying 



1 A. E. 650. 



236 



CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



that after the falsities which destroyed the most 
ancient Church began to diminish, the fallacies of 
ignorance still caused confusion. 1 In the same 
sense it is said of Edom, " The owl also and the 
raven shall dwell in it." (Isa. xxxiv. 11). 

In the better sense, it is related that when Elijah 
fled from Ahab, " he went and dwelt by the brook 
Cherith, that is before Jordan. And the ravens 
brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and 
bread and flesh in the evening ; and he drank of 
the brook." (1 Kings xvii. 5, 6.) By Elijah is 
represented the literal precepts of the Word : his 
persecution by Ahab represents the hatred of those 
precepts by those who are in the evil delights of 
self-love ; and his maintenance, under the provi- 
dence of the Lord, by the ravens, represents the 
preservation of such precepts by those who were 
in simple gentile ignorance. 

In the passage, " He giveth to the beast his 
food, and to the young ravens which cry " (Ps. 
cxlvii. 9), they are meant who are in fallacies of 



1 A. C. 864. 



THE RAVEN. 237 



ignorance, and desire instruction. Again, the Lord 
says, " Consider the ravens ; for they neither sow 
nor reap ; which neither have storehouse nor barn ; 
and God feedeth them." (Luke xii. 24.) The 
ravens are here put for the " fowls of the heavens," 
which signify affections for thinking truth, which 
do not labor for the production of it, neither lay it 
up. Of these the ravens represent the most igno- 
rant. Yet even for them provision is made by the 
Lord of some knowledge of religion and morality, 
by traditions and derivations from others, by which 
a capacity for heaven may be formed in them. 



FISHES 



IKE birds of a grosser atmosphere, fishes 
swim in the sea. They have eyes which 
are typical of dulness, rude ears, adapted only to 
the coarsest discrimination of sounds ; for wings 
they have fins, and their feathers are horny scales. 
They are exceedingly prolific ; but when they have 
deposited their eggs in suitable places they rarely 
take further thought for their young. They are 
mostly carnivorous and voracious, feeding upon 
insects, mollusks, little fishes, and any living 
creatures which they can swallow. 

The water in which fishes live is a representative 
of a natural atmosphere of thought relating to the 
world and to practical life in it. The air, called in 
ancient languages by the same name as the spirit, 
corresponds to truth concerning spiritual life, the 
spiritual states of men, the spiritual world, and the 



FISHES. 239 



Lord : but water, in its best sense, as the water 
of baptism, represents truth by which the practical 
life is cleansed, — truth which distinguishes between 
right and wrong in act. Such truth applied more 
generally, yet rightly, becomes the truth of what is 
practicable or impracticable, possible or impossible; 
it is an atmosphere of physical truth concerning 
the world with all its products and phenomena. 
Applied unjustly, it is an atmosphere of merely 
natural thought which extinguishes or drowns 
affections for thinking and living spiritually. 

The fishes which swim in this mental sea are 
affections for thinking naturally. 1 The good 
among them love scientific knowledge because of 
its truth and for the sake of its use ; the bad love 
their own natural intelligence and intellectual 
aggrandizement. The insects upon which they 
live are affections for the impressions or experi- 
ence of the senses, which are the natural food for 
the love of knowledge ; and it is as inevitable that 
broader scientific minds should comprehend the 



1 A. E. 513. 



240 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



less and absorb the results of their labors, as that 
great fishes should swallow the small. 

It was commanded the children of Israel, that 
they should eat of the fishes which had fins and 
scales ; but that all other animals living in the 
water should be unclean to them. (Lev. xi. 9-12.) 

With their fins fishes take hold of the water, and 
support, balance, and guide themselves in it. Fins 
represent, therefore, the hold of the mind upon 
natural truth, with the power and the love of 
thinking in it. They have this faculty, represented 
by fins, who are able to sustain themselves in 
natural thought, in a position to see clearly 
whether ideas of natural things are true or not. 

Scales are the clothing of fishes ; and as sheep's 
clothing represents the expressions of innocence 
and neighborly love which characterize the follow- 
ers of the Lord, so the scales of fishes represent 
the expressions of love for truth and of respect for 
the usefulness of it, professed by honest seekers 
for truth in every department of natural knowl- 
edge. 



FISHES. 24I 



Among the affections for physical truth, those 
are serviceable to spiritual life, and are food for the 
spiritual man, which have power to think truth 
clearly, and which also love truth for the good it 
may do. They are fishes which have fins and 
scales. 

Besides these spiritual fishes, there are many 
others of strong natural intelligence but no love for 
use, w 7 hich accumulate knowledge to no purpose, 
and are of no service to spiritual life. Scaleless 
creatures they arc, some of them fierce and preda- 
ceous, and some, perhaps, harmless. And, again, 
there are those which profess the strongest regard 
for the usefulness of truth, and yet have no per- 
ception of what is true, but rather stir up the 
mud like crocodiles, in the obscurity of which they 
seize their innocent prey. Scales they have of the 
hardest ; but not the slightest love for sustaining 
themselves in clear water. 

Innumerable other creatures there are in the 

water, infusoria, Crustacea, mollusks, corresponding 

to mere physical aptitude for impressions and ob- 
ii p 



242 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE, 



servations, or to bodily states of activity or repose, 
of hunger or satisfaction, quite apart from the 
states and desires of the mind. These are not in 
themselves food to the spiritual mind, but they are 
to affections for physical knowledge. 

And besides these there are whales, warm- 
blooded, air-breathing, affectionate ; ranging from 
sea to sea, and consuming immense quantities of 
small marine creatures. They represent affections 
for generalizing knowledge, themselves breathing 
the atmosphere of spiritual truth and believing in 
the divine Creator ; which range with comprehen- 
sive zeal from one department of natural truth to 
another, finding everywhere evidences of divine 
origin and purpose. 

Such generous affections are represented by the 
whales of the fifth day of creation (Gen. i. 20-23) ; 
and innocent loves for learning natural truth of 
every kind, for the sake of its practical usefulness, 
are represented by the fishes. 

A state of the world in which there is no spirit- 
ual life from charity, and consequently no living 



FISHES. 2 43 



interest in even natural truth, is meant by the 
turning the waters of Egypt to blood, so that all 
the fish of the river died. (Ex. vii.) Quite simi- 
lar is the meaning of the following verses from 
Ezekiel : " Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh, 
king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the 
midst of his rivers, which hath said, ' My river is 
mine own, and I have made myself.' But I will 
put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of 
thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bring 
thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the 
fish of thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales. And 
I will leave thee thrown into the wilderness, thee 
and all the fish of thy rivers : thou shalt fall upon 
the open fields ; thou shalt not be brought together, 
nor gathered ; I have given thee for meat to the 
beasts of the field and to the fowls of the heaven." 
(Ch. xxix. 3-5.) 

The word for "dragon" here is the same as that 
translated " whale " elsewhere. It is a general 
word for great water-animals. Here the creature 
is said to have " scales," and to live in the Nile, 



244 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



and can scarcely be any other animal than the 
crocodile. It represents a monstrous selfish doc- 
trine, such as the infallibility of the Pope, which 
compels all lovers of knowledge to adhere to it 
for the sake of salvation ; but which, with all its 
adherents, will be left in the waste places of history 
when the presence of the living God shall be felt 
among men. 

The increase of affection for knowledge, and the 
renewed vitality which will be imparted to it by 
the influence of clearer truth concerning the Lord 
and heaven and the life which leads to heaven, — 
an increase and renewal which are among the 
brightest signs of the coming of the Lord in our 
generation, — are thus graphically predicted by the 
same prophet : " Afterward he brought me again 
unto the door of the house ; and behold waters 
issued out from under the threshold of the house 
eastward. . . . Then said he unto me, These waters 
issue out towards the east country, and go down 
into the desert, and go into the sea ; which being 
brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be 



FISHES. 2 45 



healed. And it shall come to pass, that every 
thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the 
rivers shall come, shall live ; and there shall be a 
very great multitude of fish, because these waters 
shall come thither : for they shall be healed ; and 
every thing shall live whither the river cometh. 
And it shall come to pass, that the fishers shall 
stand upon it from En-gedi even unto En-eglaim ; 
they shall be a place to spread forth nets ; their 
fish shall be according to their kinds, as the fish 
of the great sea, exceeding many." (Ch. xlvii. i, 
8-10.) 

In the gospels, fish and fishermen are often 
mentioned as signifying affection for natural truth 
and men who possess such affection. The Lord 
likens the kingdom of heaven to " a net that was 
cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind : 
which, when it" was full, they drew to shore, and 
sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but 
cast the bad away " (Matt. xiii. 47, 48) : and by 
the good fish He means men who have sincerely 
loved natural truth for the sake of doing good ; 



246 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

who, when they die, will be ready to receive 
spiritual instruction in the kingdom of heaven. 

In essentially the same meaning, the disciples 
were said to fish for men, when they drew into the 
Church those who before had known only natural 
truth. But in their former occupation as fisher- 
men, supplying fish to consumers, they represent 
those who love to acquire natural truth, and then, 
as it were gathering the fish from the seas of their 
own minds, teach such truth to others. 

In this sense Swedenborg likens himself to the 
Lord's disciples, saying that he was a spiritual 
fisherman, whose delight it was to learn and teach 
science, until the Lord called him to teach spiritual 
truth. And it is not unreasonable to hope that 
many sincere lovers of science will become equally 
sincere and candid teachers of the truth of heaven, 
when once the Lord calls and instructs them. 



INSECTS. 



~j\ /TOST insects pass through three stages of life, 
— that of the caterpillar, worm, or maggot.; 
that of the pupa, or chrysalis ; and the winged 
state, like that of flies, butterflies, moths, &c. 
There are exceptions to this general rule, some of 
which will be mentioned hereafter. 

In the first state, the business of their life is 
eating. They are intent upon gathering, while 
they may, food from leaves, flowers, wool, putrefy- 
ing substances; or whatever the worms may live 
on, usually acquiring their full growth during this 
period, and sometimes storing up all the nourish- 
ment they will need in the rest of their lives. 

The second is a period of more or less complete 
repose, usually in a cocoon or case, where the 
formation of wings and other organs of the fully- 
developed insect is rapidly completed. 



248 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

And thus the little creature is prepared to enter 
upon the third and final state, in which it lives in 
part upon the wing, feeding upon the nectar of 
flowers, or some other more delicate food than it 
had known before, and lays its eggs, sometimes 
storing with them a considerable supply of pro- 
visions for the future young. 

We have seen in birds, with their quick sight, 
pleasant voices, or brilliant plumage, and their 
human sympathy, images of our affections for 
thinking of human life, and of the spiritual or 
moral principles relating to that life. The winged 
insects, likewise, love to fly in the air, yet not in 
long flights, but from one near object to another, 
as their changing fancy happens to be attracted. 
They are forms of thinking, but of mere sensual 
impressions and pleasures. 

In their caterpillar or grub state, they are expres- 
sions of desire for the knowledge or impressions 
of sense from which they may think. The perfect 
insects represent delights in thinking from appear- 



INSECTS. 



249 



ances, and gathering the pleasures of them. And 
the chrysalis state represents the intermediate time 
of assimilation of the impressions acquired and 
development of the power of enjoying them. 

A little child, when first he sees a toy quite 
new to him, or an unfamiliar face, is not imme- 
diately delighted. He is for awhile intent upon 
observing, examining, and becoming thoroughly 
acquainted with it ; and then, after a time of 
repose, in which perhaps the object or person is 
withdrawn or neglected, he will greet it with a 
laugh, and play with it familiarly. I once saw a 
large company of poor children brought from 
crowded quarters in the city for a first play in 
green fields, among the spring flowers. Instead 
of the constant expressions of delight w T hich I 
expected from them, they exhibited an almost 
greedy eagerness to see, examine, explore, and 
possess ; and they went home almost as seriously 
and silently as a swarm of caterpillars to their nest. 
I presume, however, that if they had returned in a 

few days to the scenes already made familiar, they 
11* 



250 



CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



would have manifested a great deal of enjoyment, 
and probably they did feel such enjoyment in 
thinking it over. So almost everybody, in a first 
visit to an unfamiliar country, as, for instance, to 
the mountains, from the desire to enjoy it, is at 
first eagerly intent upon becoming acquainted with 
it ; many persons are much disappointed at their 
own want of ability to enjoy what they know to be 
so enjoyable ; but after the due steps of develop- 
ment are completed, their power of enjoyment 
opens its beautiful wings unexpectedly, like a 
butterfly fresh from his chrysalis case. 

In regard to certain kinds of music or painting, 
for which I had the highest respect, I have several 
times felt such disappointment at my lack of power 
of enjoyment, and have not understood that the 
power of appreciation must first attain its full 
growth by diligent attention and the acquisition 
of knowledge ; and that the capacity for free 
enjoyment springs from this as the butterfly from 
the caterpillar. Of course there must exist the 
sincere interest in the subject, and desire to 



INSECTS. 



^S 1 



appreciate it, like a butterfly's egg, or no faculty 
of enjoying will be developed. But if these do 
exist, they are proof that the faculty may be 
formed by cultivation. 

Worms, caterpillars, and the perfect insects, 
serve as food to birds, and also to serpents ; 
because the knowledge of appearances to the 
senses is food for spiritual thought, and also to 
the love of sensual pleasure. We observe the 
worms and butterflies, and our love of observing 
and learning their ways is like a caterpillar ; 
but the spiritual thought to which we submit 
our observations is a bird that eats the cater- 
pillar. 

Our common name, " book-worm, ,, is rightly 
applied to one who devours books without caring 
for any other work or pleasure in life. 

That the power of thinking, understanding, and 
enjoying the appearances presented to the senses, 
is represented by insects, is thus taught by Swe- 
denborg : — 



252 



CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



" The animals which walk, and also those which 
creep, signify affections in each sense, thus goods 
or evils ; for these are of the affections : but the 
animals which fly, and also the winged insects 
signify such things as are of the thoughts in each 
sense, thus truths or falsities ; for these are of the 
thoughts ; . . . hence, winged insects signify like 
things, but in the extremes of man." A 

Again, he says : — 

" Flying things in the Word all signify things 
intellectual, and thence truths, and in the opposite 
sense falsities ; but the flying things of the lowest 
kind, which are insects, signify truths, and in the 
opposite sense falsities, which are more obscure, as 
those which belong to the sensual ; for those, unless 
they be illustrated by interior things, are altogether 
in obscurity and darkness, being next to the body, 
and thence next to terrestrial things where heav- 
enly things terminate, and are immersed in thick 
darkness." 2 

And once more : — 

" It is not the sensual principle of sight, hearing, 
smell, taste, and touch which is here meant ; for 
these things are proper to the body : but it is the 

i A. C. 9331. 2 7441. 



INSECTS. 253 



ultimate or lowest principle of thought and affection, 
which is first opened with infants, and which is of 
such a nature that they do not think any thing else, 
nor are affected with any other objects than what 
make one with the senses above mentioned ; for 
infants learn to think by means of the senses, and 
to be affected with objects according to the things 
which have pleased the senses : wherefore, the 
first internal principle which is opened to them is 
the sensual, which is called the ultimate sensual 
principle of man, and also corporeal sensual : but 
afterwards, as the infant advances in age, and 
becomes a boy, the sensual principle is opened 
more interiorly, from which he thinks naturally, 
and is also affected naturally ; at length, when he 
becomes a youth and young man, his sensual prin- 
ciple is opened still more interiorly, from which he 
thinks rationally, and if he is in the good of charity 
and faith, spiritually, and also is affected rationally 
and spiritually ; this thought and affection is what 
is called the rational and spiritual man, whereas the 
former is called the natural man, and the first the 
sensual man/' x 

The appearances of life, of which the insects of 
the mind love to think, are of every kind, from the 

1 A. E. 548. 



254 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



vilest and most cruel to the delightful loveliness of 
heaven itself. Happy thought of the beautiful ap- 
pearances of heaven, and of heavenly life on earth, 
are represented by the beautiful butterflies and 
moths. Probably the various kinds of heavenly 
life from which these lovely appearances spring- 
could be traced by careful attention in the char- 
acteristics of the butterflies which represent the 
thoughts of them. 

Several of these, which perhaps should be ranked 
as the noblest of the insect race, surround them- 
selves, as they enter the chrysalis state, with 
cocoons of silk, from which all our supplies of that 
beautiful material are derived. When caterpillars 
have attained their full growth, they immediately 
search for a suitable place for their cocoons, which 
they spin with impatient zeal, working night and 
day till they are completed ; they then cast their 
caterpillar skins, and in a state of absolute help- 
lessness, but equally absolute trust, they await 
their rebirth into their heaven. 

Such caterpillars correspond to a love for de- 



INSECTS. 255 



scriptions of heaven, and of the lovely forms of the 
life that is from heaven. This love eagerly learns 
these things from desire to see and enjoy such 
loveliness. The silken thread with which it clothes 
itself in its helplessness, is from the knowledge 
it has obtained of the objects of its love, now 
expressed with trustful hope of being enabled to 
enjoy them. The moths are delights ia the happy 
things of heaven, and the honey upon which they 
live is the pleasantness of truth in its first promise 
of producing good fruit. 

That a knowledge of the external lovely things 
of heaven, with the hope of enjoying them, is 
represented by silk, is evident from the angels who 
came to Swedenborg as forms of conjugial love. 1 
"They were clad in robes and tunics of shining 
silk, in which were inwoven flowers most beautiful 
to the sight/' And what they described to him 
was, not the spiritual operation and delight of 
that love in the soul, but the warmth and light, 
the gardens and the fragrance of their heaven. 



1 137, C. L. 



256 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

Such description, from their own knowledge and 
constant desire, was represented in their silken 
garments ; and the delights of it were still more 
fully expressed by the flowers inwoven in them. 

" Truth from a spiritual origin," Swedenborg 
says, is represented by silk ; and adds : " This 
signification it derives from its splendor of light." * 
" By silk is signified mediate heavenly good and 
truth ; good from its softness, and truth from its 
shining," 2 " In heaven, they who are in natural 
truth appear clothed in white, which appears white 
as if from linen ; natural truth itself is also repre- 
sented there, as if woven of finer threads of linen ; 
those threads appear like silken threads, splendid, 
beautifully translucent, and soft, and the raiment of 
them likewise, if the truth which is so represented 
is from good ; but, on the contrary, those threads 
as of linen do not appear translucent, nor splendid, 
nor soft, but hard and brittle, and yet white, if the 
truth so represented be not from good." 3 

1 A. E. 619, 1 144. a A. R. 773. 3 6701, A. C. 



THE LOCUST. 257 



THE LOCUST. 

rHE locust is quite a different insect from 
those that have been described. The 
changes through which it passes are not those 
of worm, helpless chrysalis, and winged insect ; 
it has its insect legs from the start, and only 
sheds its skin repeatedly, and by degrees acquires 
wings. 1 

As there are several species of locust, and 
several stages of their individual life, it is not 
surprising to find them spoken of under differ- 
ent names. Some authorities regard the names 
rendered in our English Bible palmer-worm, can- 
ker-worm, and caterpillar, beetle, locust, and bald- 
locust, as all belonging to members of this family. 2 
They play an important part in the imagery of 
the Bible, both as plagues by reason of their num- 

1 Lubbock. 2 Tristram and Wood. Comp. A. E. 543. 

Q 



2 5 8 



CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



bers and destructiveness, and as themselves con- 
stituting an article of food. 

" All the locusts are vegetable-feeders, and do 
great harm wherever they happen to be plentiful, 
their powerful jaws severing even the thick grass- 
stems as if cut by scissors. But it is only when 
they invade a country that their real power is felt. 
They come flying with the wind in such vast mul- 
titudes that the sky is darkened as if by thunder- 
clouds ; and when they settle, every vestige of green 
disappears off the face of the earth. 

" Mr. Gordon Camming once saw a flight of these 
locusts. They flew about three hundred feet from 
the ground, and came on in thick, solid masses, 
forming one unbroken cloud. On all sides nothing- 
was to be seen but locusts. The air was full of 
them, and the plain was covered with them, and for 
more than an hour the insect army flew past him. 
When the locusts settle, they eat with such voracity 
that the sound caused by their jaws cutting the 
leaves and grass can be heard at a great distance ; 
and even the young locusts, which have no wings, 
and are graphically termed by the Dutch colonists 
of Southern Africa ' voet-gangers,' or foot-goers, 
are little inferior in power of jaw to the fully-devel- 
oped insect. 



THE LOCUST. 259 



"As long as they have a favorable wind, nothing 
stops the progress of the locusts. They press for- 
ward just like the vast herds of antelopes that cover 
the plains of Africa, or the bisons that blacken the 
prairies of America, and the progress of even the 
wingless young is as irresistible as that of the adult 
insects. Regiments of soldiers have in vain at- 
tempted to stop them. Trenches have been dug 
across their path, only to be filled up in a few min- 
utes with the advancing hosts, over whose bodies 
the millions of survivors continued their march. 
When the trenches were filled with water, the result 
was the same ; and even when fire was substituted 
for water, the flames were quenched by the masses 
of locusts that fell into them. When they come to 
a tree, they climb up it in swarms, and devour every 
particle of foliage, not even sparing the bark of the 
smaller branches. They ascend the walls of houses 
that come in the line of their march, swarming in at 
the windows, and gnawing in their hunger the very 
woodwork of the furniture." 

" These insects are . . . eaten in all parts of the 
world which they frequent, and in some places form 
an important article of diet, thus compensating in 
some way for the amount of vegetable food which 
they consume. 

" Herodotus, for example, when describing the 
various tribes of Libyans, mentions the use of the 



260 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



locust as an article of diet. . . . ' When they have 
caught the insects ' [he says] i they dry them in 
the sun, reduce them to powder, and, sprinkling 
them in milk, drink them.' 

44 This is precisely the plan which is followed at 
the present day by the Bosjesmans of South Africa. 
To them the locusts are a blessing, and not a plague. 
. . . When they see a cloud of locusts in the distance, 
they light great fires, and heap plenty of green boughs 
upon them, so as to create a thick smoke. The lo- 
custs have no idea of avoiding these smoke columns, 
but fly over the fires, and, stifled by the vapor, fall 
to the ground, where they are caught in vast num- 
bers by the Bosjesmans. When their captors have 
roasted and eaten as many as they can manage to 
devour, they dry the rest over the fires, pulverize 
them between two stones, and keep the meal for 
future use, mixing it with water, or, if they can get 
it, with milk." 

" In Palestine, locusts are eaten either roasted or 
boiled in salt and water ; but, when preserved for 
future use, they are dried in the sun, their heads, 
wings, and legs picked off, and their bodies ground 
into dust. This dust has naturally a rather bitter 
flavor, which is corrected by mixing it with camel's 

milk or honey, the latter being the favorite sub- 



stance 



•>•> 



1 Wood's Bible Animals. 



THE LOCUST. 2 6i 



The locust and grasshopper tribe, the most 
common of our summer insects, loving to eat 
every green thing, represent the desire to see and 
know what is going on, not from interest in the 
ends, but simply from curiosity to know every 
living thought and plan of life. It is a desire 
universal in children, and hardly less general in 
adults. 

The same desire directed to the Word loves to 
know all the appearances and ways of life described 
in its letter. John the Baptist, therefore, who 
represented the literal sense of the Word in its 
application to life, had for his meat locusts and 
wild honey ; the locusts representing a knowledge 
of the letter of the Word, and the honey the nat- 
ural pleasure in such knowledge. 1 

" In ancient times, when churches were repre- 
sentative churches, all who were in ministries were 
clothed according to their representations, and also 
did eat according thereto." 2 

When the mmd is good, and loves a charitable, 
upright life, then all this superficial knowledge of 

1 A. C. 9372, 7643. * A. E. 543. 



262 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

life is serviceable as food for useful thought ; but 
when a man loves only himself, and not goodness 
of life, he sees and knows all the thoughts and 
plans of life about him only to despise and pervert 
them. The locusts in his mind are a plague which 
destroys every green and living thing. 

The plagues of Egypt represented the exposure 
of the evils that infested men before the coming of 
the Lord. And one of those plagues was a cloud 
of locusts that " covered the face of the whole 
earth, so that the land was darkened ; and they 
did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit 
of the trees which the hail had left : and there 
remained not any green thing in the trees, or in 
the herbs of the field, through all the land of 
Egypt" (Ex. x. 15), by which was represented the 
destruction of every principle of good life in the 
Church, by those who intensely loved their own 
selfish power and evil pleasures. 

In like manner, the thoughts of those who from 
love of evil were in the doctrine of faith alone, 
concerning good life, were represented by locusts 



THE LOCUST 263 



that came out of the smoke of the bottomless pit, 
by which they entirely stupefied their followers in 
regard to good spiritual life. 

In a better sense, men, because they are in the 
most external appearances of the Lord's universe, 
are called locusts in comparison with Him. " It is 
He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and 
the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers. " (Isa. 
xl. 22.) And, again, in the sight of those who are 
persuaded of their own eminence, others appear 
even to themselves as grasshoppers : " And there 
we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come 
of the giants ; and we were in our own sight as 
grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight." 
(Num. xiii. 33.) x 



1 A. E. 543. 



264 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



BEES. 

"TVJOT for the green grass and foliage do the bees 
care, but for the fragrant flowers, into which 
they dive, like diviners of hidden treasure, for the 
honey and pollen. Neither do spiritual bees care 
for a knowledge of the world with its theories and 
principles so long as they are only theories and 
principles ; but as soon as they blossom with the 
promise of usefulness, the bees hurry to them, sure 
of finding in them their favorite sweetness. 

The locusts care only to know — it makes not 
much difference what. The bees ask, "What is 
it for ? " " What is the use of it ? " And in a 
knowledge of the usefulness they find honey. 

" That honey is enjoyment, is because it is sweet ; 
and every sweetness in the natural world corresponds 
to enjoyment and pleasantness in the spiritual. . . . 
Every truth, and especially truths from good, have 
their enjoyment, but enjoyment from the affection 
of them, and thence the use." x 

1 A. C. 5620. 



\ 



BEES. 



265 



But bees have not only a love for the sweetness 
of usefulness, but also a stinging contempt for 
what is useless or mischievous. They sting all 
intruders upon their busy lives ; even the drones 
of their own race they carry out from the hive, 
and sting to death. 

Many human insects have the power to annoy 
us with impertinent suggestions or remarks, of 
which we shall say more presently ; but they have 
no power to sting unless there are appearances of 
evil or disgrace in our lives from which they can 
draw stinging inferences. The stings of the bees 
are charges of uselessness or intrusion. 

Honey is frequently mentioned in the Bible ; 
but bees rarely. 

" It is related of Samson, that after he had rent 
the young lion, and returned to take a wife from 
the nation of the Philistines, 'he turned aside to 
see the carcass of the lion ; and, behold, there was 
a swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of the 
lion.' (Judges xiv. 8, 9.) By this was signified 
the dissipation of the faith separate from charity, 
12 



266 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 

which the Philistines represented : it was on this 
account that the Philistines were called ' the uncir- 
cumcised,' by which name is signified that they were 
without spiritual love and charity, and only in nat- 
ural love, which is the love of self and the world ; 
such faith inasmuch as it destroys the good of 
charity, was represented by the young lion which 
assaulted Samson with intent to tear him in pieces ; 
but Samson, because he was a Nazarite, and by his 
Nazariteship represented the Lord as to His ulti- 
mate natural, rent the lion in pieces, and afterwards 
found in his carcass a swarm of bees and honey, by 
which was signified that after that faith is dissipated 
the good of charity succeeds in its place." 1 

This is the common signification of honey in the 
Scriptures. Therefore it is said that " the judg- 
ments of Jehovah are sweeter than honey, and the 
dropping of the honey-combs." (Ps. cxix. 102, 103.) 

The land of Canaan is called "a land flowing 
with milk and honey," because it represents 
" heaven, where is the good of charity and truth 
of faith, and thence pleasantness and enjoyment." 2 
Yet, because spiritual bees judge wholly from 

1 A. E. 619. - A. C. 6857.* 



BEES. 



267 



appearances, and may mistake the appearance of 
industry and the promise of use for genuine 
usefulness, honey also represents what appears like 
the pleasure of use, but may be merely selfish 
elation. In this sense of selfish delight, it was 
forbidden that any honey should be used in the 
sacrifices to the Lord. 1 (Lev. ii. 11.) 

As the stings of bees in a good sense signify the 
imputations of idleness and opposition to pleasant 
work, by which the love of such pleasantness de- 
fends itself, in the perverse sense they signify such 
charges against those who object to merely selfish 
pleasure. Bees are therefore mentioned once as 
means by which genuine goodness is destroyed, 
and selfish pleasure substituted. " And it shall 
come to pass in that day, that Jehovah shall hiss 
for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the 
rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land 
of Assyria." (Isa. vii. 18, 19.) 2 

1 A. E. 619. 2 A . E. 543- A. C. 9331. 



268 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE 



HORNETS. 

TT has been said that the power to sting spirit- 
ually is the power to bring home some accu- 
sations or insinuations of evil or disgrace to our 
lives. Bees sting in their way ; but the imputa- 
tion of worse evils to those exposed to the attack 
is represented by the stings of wasps and hornets. 

.When the children of Israel were approaching 
the land of Canaan, the Lord promised, as one of 
the means by which their safety would be secured, 
that He would send " the hornet " before them to 
drive out the nations which were there, signifying 
that their own false thoughts from evil loves 
would return to plague and condemn them. 1 

i A. C. 9331. 



FLIES. 2 6 9 



FLIES. 

LILIES buzz about for honey, sugar, sweet things 

generally, and any kind of filth. They also 

breed in manure, which represents the filthy things 

rejected from spiritual life. In the grub state 

they love to learn such things ; in the winged, to 

think them. They are the annoying thoughts of 

self-indulgence and evil, which come unbidden, and 

even though hated. 

" The fly in the extremity of the rivers of Egypt " 
(Isa. vii. 18, 19), Swedenborg says, "are the falsities 
in the extremes of the natural mind, thus which are 
in the sensual nearest the body. These are com- 
pared to such an insect, because the things there are 
no other than as insects flying in the air, and ob- 
scuring interior things, and also doing them harm. 
For, as to the greater part, the things there are 
imaginations and fallacies." l 

Similar false suggestions from evil loves are 

represented by the flies which were one of the 

plagues of Egypt. 2 

1 A. C. 7441. 2 Ibid. 



270 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE, 



SPIDERS. 

O PIDERS we know chiefly as spinners of webs, 
sometimes with much apparent beauty, the 
purpose of which is to ensnare other insects which 
they may devour. By long threads of webs, also, 
spiders sail in the air, sometimes considerable 
distances. 

In Swedenborg's Diary is the following account 
of men who appeared like spiders in the spiritual 
world : — 

" There was seen a spider's thread and web, which 
reached up on high, into the interior heaven ; this 
thread was drawn down, and there followed thence 
a diabolical spirit, who appeared before angelic sight 
like a great and horrid spider. 1 ... It was then told 
and shown who those are ; namely, that they are those 
who learn the arts of raising themselves towards the 
interior heaven, which is done especially by the habit 
of entering into the feelings of others, and almost 

1 n. 4735- 



SPIDERS. 



271 



absorbing them, even so far as to think as they do. 
Especially do they learn truths of faith and learn 
to enter into the affection of truth, by holding the 
thoughts long in them, but this always with the 
intent to deceive, make sport of, and rule : thus 
it is full of cunning, deceit, and malice. By such 
things they insinuate themselves among the angels 
of heaven. 1 . . . The angels said that sometimes they 
are observed, and that they sit in corners, and some- 
times appear and sometimes do not appear ; and 
that they cannot be removed before the time of their 
casting down has come. 2 A spider appeared, drop- 
ping down from heaven by a spider's thread. The 
form and the slipping down were altogether like a 
spider. At first it appeared small, and was able to 
let itself down by the thread, and also raise itself 
up : it was borne to the right, and also there wished 
to draw itself up towards heaven : but he could not, 
because thus who and what he was was detected. 
Others said that he appeared to them as a man. 
It was said by angels that he was from the third 
heaven, and that such are they who have long been 
poisoners, or assassins, and practised such things 
with cunning and deceit ; but afterwards seemed to 
repent, thinking of heaven, and also believing, and 
externally practising piety ; these, when in this 

1 4736. 2 4737. 



272 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



latter state, are elevated into heaven ; but still their 
inner quality is there disclosed ; for their interiors 
are more and more exposed ; and so they cast them- 
selves down thence, and appear like spiders. 1 

" I have seen many, who appeared like spiders 
which let themselves down by threads, who were 
cast down from heaven. Their affections thus ap- 
peared. They were women who in speech, gestures, 
and appearance seemed pious and devout, but in- 
wardly overflowed with adulteries, thefts, and every 
malice and deceit ; thus their interiors were full of 
poisons." 2 

" ' They weave the spiders web/ is said of evil 
men, who by treachery and craft seduce others in 
spiritual affairs. . . . Their treacherous falsities are 
signified by the spider's web which they are said to 
weave." 3 

The web of the spider bears some resemblance 
to the silkworm's thread ; and, representatively, 
they both are spun from knowledge of heaven or 
heavenly good. But the spider spins it from her 
abdomen, with no care for it but to catch those 
who can be deceived by it ; while the silk worm 

1 4889. 2 5199. 3 A. E. 581. 



SPIDERS. 273 



spins lovingly from her mouth, from sincere desire 
to become heavenly herself. 

Flies are much like insect-mice, in their love for 
pleasant frivolities : and the crafty spiders in their 
beautiful webs, zealously condemning the flies for 
evils much lighter than their own fierce lusts, are 
not unlike insect-cats. 



12' 



274 CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



SCORPIONS. 

"HPHE scorpions belong to the class Arachnida, 
-*- and have much the appearance of a small 
lobster, whence they were formerly classed with 
the Crustacea. Their palpi, or claws, are of the 
proportionate shape and size of those of the lobster, 
and are employed for seizing their prey, which they 
then dispatch by striking it with the powerful 
curved claw at the end of their tail, which secretes 
an acrid poison. The tail is jointed and of great 
length, and, in running, the animal holds it over its 
back in a threatening attitude, and in this position 
it always strikes with it, and thus in efforts to 
escape will sometimes strike its own head, and 
mortally wound itself. 

" Scorpions are carnivorous, feeding chiefly on 
'beetles and locusts. They swarm in every part of 
Palestine, and are found in houses, in chinks of 
walls, among ruins, and under stones, whether in 
dry or moist situations. . . . 

" The sting of the scorpion is very painful, much 
more so than that of the hornet, and our muleteers 
were several times stung; but suction and the 



SCORPIONS. 



275 



application of ammonia and sweet oil reduced the 
swelling and pain in two or three hours. I have 
known an instance of a man dying from the effects 
of a scorpion sting, which he received in the throat 
when leaning against a wall in which the creature 
was secreted." l 

Swedenborg speaks of the scorpion as " denoting 
a persuasive principle which is of an infatuating and 
suffocating character. . . . The nature and quality of 
the persuasive principle signified by the scorpion," 
he says, "are as yet scarcely known to any one in 
the world, because it is the persuasive principle of 
the spirit of a sensual man, in which he is when he 
becomes a spirit, but not while he lives as a man in 
the world. The reason is, that a man in the world 
rarely speaks out what his spirit thinks and inmostly 
loves ; for he is taught from infancy to converse 
about such things as pertain to civil and moral life, 
although his spirit, which thinks and wills inwardly, 
is differently inclined : the spirit of man, whilst it 
resides in the body, makes a show of such things 
before the world, because otherwise he cannot 
receive favor, so as to obtain the ends which his 
spirit aims at, which are principally honors and gains, 
and a name and fame on account of them. This is 

J Tristram, Nat. Hist, of Bible. 



276 



CORRESPONDENCES OF THE BIBLE. 



the reason that the nature and quality of the infat- 
uating and suffocating persuasive principle which is 
signified by the scorpion are not known in the world : 
such, however, is its nature with the spirits in whom 
it is operative, that it infuses itself into the soul and 
spirit of another, and lays asleep, and almost extin- 
guishes, his rational and intellectual faculties/whence 
he cannot possibly know otherwise than that what 
is spoken is the truth, although it should be most 
false." 1 



1 544 A. E.. 



Cambridge : Press of John Wilson & Son. 



HOH 



I I I * 







■ 



H 



-. ■ 



I 

■ 






V 






I «si**-r ? . 






*v„ 










Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: May 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township PA 16066 

(724) 779-21 1 1 






I ■ I 













LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




014 328 791 







Warn 



ran 






San 



ma 






mm 

111111 



*J3w 



3^1 






^4^-m 



